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PRINCETON, Now. 


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BOSTON: 
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1869. 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
LEE AND SHEPARD, 


In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 


Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 


PREFACE. 


Tuts volume is devoted to those inquiries 
which now agitate the thinking world. It is 
committed to the care of the Christian Church. 
Its truths are God’s, and will live forever. Its 
errors are the author’s; they will be overruled, 


forgotten, and, he trusts, forgiven. 


TO . 


MYiwilhEk, 


WHOSE PATIENT ASSISTANCE AND CONSTANT ENCOUR- 
AGEMENT HAVE GREATLY AIDED IN 


THEIR PREPARATION, 


These Pages 


ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 


(REUSE 
% as g 


1 


nT A MAA Cd tee Bec age 


at. © 
Sis eA es 
d 


‘ 


CONTENTS. 


SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 


Prophets and Prophecies respecting Ancient 
Cities and Countries. wei eee ce 
Prophecies respecting existing Nationalities. 
Prophecies respecting Christ and Christianity. 
The Barth and the Bible. . «+ 6 « « « « 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 
The Resurrection of the Lord Fesus. . 
DRC hBTEE= ONG. fas Las thc ege a) Pace 
Satan. <4 
Permitted and Prohibited ease teree ° 


SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 
Conversion. . . ‘ : ; 
Supernatural Life as related to Faith, Works, 

and the Atonement of Christ. . . + «4 « 


SUPERNATURAL DESTINY. 


Future Existence of Man... .« 

Resurrection of Man. 

Nature and Operations of Conscience. . . 

Nature and Operations of Memory. 

Thraldom of Character. . . . : 

The Old Heavens and Earth displaced by the 
VOU ren eA dhe seth akNehh sae Ie ies Se he Foes) ce 8 


The Sceptic among the Disciples. 


177 
207 
231 
253 
275 
297 
327 
351 


373 


399 


425 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 


(11) 


‘For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; 
but holy men of God Spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost.” 2 Peter i. 21. 


** Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I 
send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send 
me. 

*‘And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but 
understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 

“Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until 
the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without 
man, and the land be utterly desolate.” Jsazak vi. 3,30, 215, 


‘If aman says that God hath spoken to him supernaturally, 
I cannot perceive what argument he can produce to make me 
believe it.” Hosses. 


‘The prophetic element is not necessarily anything mirac- 
ulous or exceptional.” JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 


“A single fact is worth a thousand arguments.” Fox. 


(12) 


PROPHETS AND PROPHECIES 


RESPECTING ANCIENT CITIES AND COUNTRIES. 


WO inquiries are before us. First, Who and 
what were the Jewish Prophets? Second, Were 
they inspired — peculiarly and distinctively inspired 
— by Jehovah to speak and write the things contained 
in the prophetic books of the Bible? The question is 
not whether they were fanatics, speaking from a kind 
of oracular frenzy, or whether they were poetically 
inspired, or intellectually elevated; but were they in 
fact what they claimed to be, and what the Scrip- 
tures affirm they were —the voice of God to a sinful 
world? Were they moved by the Divine Spirit as no 
other men in any age of the world have been, and 
did they possess a power to disclose the mysteries 
of God, and point men upward and onward to that 
which otherwise would have been an impenetrable 
future? 
The word prophet, in the original, means a ‘“ boiling 
over,” and in the Hebrew never occurs in the active, 


but always in the passive voice. In a word, then, a 
(18) 


14 CREDO. 


Bible prophet was a messenger of God, filled with 
the Holy Ghost, being himself merely a passive agent. 
Divine truth was placed in his soul to boil over, or 
bubble out of itself; or, extending the figure employed 
by our Lord, it was “as a well of water springing 
up” with divine life and truth. 

We may divide the Prophetic Periods into four. 

The first was the Patriarchal; during which God 
gave to his servants special communications, some- 
times with his own voice, oftener by visiting angels. 
Such were the communications in Eden, the call of 
Abraham, the blessing obtained by Jacob, and the 
visions of Joseph. The truths thus communicated 
unto a few would be sufficient, even if not transmitted 
to writing, for the guidance of the race for a long 
time, when the families of the earth numbered but 
few, and when men lived a thousand years. 

At the head of the second period stood Moses. 
With him were associated Aaron, Joshua, and Miri- 
am. They were acknowledged by their countrymen 
as divinely-inspired prophets. 

After the era of Moses, for upwards of six hundred 
_ years, the prophetic spirit appeared but once — the song 
of Deborah. The truths which had been spoken by 
Moses and his contemporaries were, in the mean time, 
carefully committed to writing, and guarded with the 
strictest religious veneration by a class whose sole 
business it was to preserve and teach them. 

In the age of Samuel, the civil government of 
the Hebrews, which, from the time of Moses, had 
remained an unsettled theocracy, ruled by Jewish 
knights or crusaders, became a kingdom. During the 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 15 


period of this transition, old forms of Jewish society 
were broken up, and gave place to new ones. There 
was needed the utterance of divine truth to meet 
those changes and prepare the nation and the world 
for other and approaching events. 

Consequently, after a silence of hundreds of years, 

the prophetic order was again revived. ‘* The voice 
of the Lord came unto me, saying,” and ‘* Thus saith 
the Lord,” were heard among the people. At the 
head of this new order stood the prophet Samuel. 
He is termed its father and founder. 
(This ‘second, prophetic period extended from 840 
until 420 B. C., and presented an unbroken succes- 
sion from Samuel to Malachi. It embraced the entire 
class of Major and Minor Prophets, among whom 
shine out those marvellous names — Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, and Daniel — which have attracted, in all 
subsequent ages, the attention and admiration of every 
reader of the Bible. There can be no question that 
this order of prophets ceased with the reproving voice 
of Malachi. A host of legends, both Jewish and Mus- 
sulman, commemorate the extinction of the prophetic 
gift at his death. 

A silence of four hundred years succeeded, during 
which the Jewish people remained in constant expec- 
tation of some new prophet. They looked, but they 
-looked in vain. ‘Thus saith the Lord” was not 
heard, or heard only to be disregarded. To this 
place and that the expectant people journeyed. To 
this one and that they listened, only to find that the 
gift and spirit of prophecy had departed. Mean- 
while, the Jewish church, as if moved by divine 


16 _ CREDO. 


influence, appointed a special order of Scribes, who 
elected Ezra as their president. Under their sanction 
all the inspired books and prophetic rolls in its posses- 
sion were united. In these writings the Jewish religion 
proper had been fully revealed and established. The 
New Dispensation had been described and promised. 
Until it dawned upon the nations, additional prophetic 
declarations and authority were unknown. 

At length, in the days of Herod the king, the 
prophetic voice was again heard. The warning 
notes of John the Baptist, ‘‘ Repent ye, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand,” rang through the wilder- 
ness and plains of Judea. | 

The great and proud city of Jerusalem arose in 
one day, and went out to be baptized of John in Jor- 
dan. His name was a household word throughout 
their cities. The people felt that the word of God 
had come to John, the son of Zacharias, as it came to 
Isaiah, the son of Amoz, in the days of their fathers. 
So much did he resemble one of the old prophets, 
that some thought Elijah had revisited the earth in 
person to warn the nations of sin and danger. His 
real and predicted mission was that of a forerunner. 
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” he cried; by 
which he meant that the God-man was on his way to 
make a royal journey through the cities and villages 
of Judea, to teach the people the truth, and heal their 
diseases, 

Suddenly the Prophet of Prophets was in their 
midst. He was the Word. He spoke from his own 
authority, as man never spake, but as God spoke to 
Adam. His ordinary discourses were prophecies. 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. Me 


He gathered about him a school of prophets, as Mo- 
ses and Samuel had done before him. Through the 
disciples the sacred gift was continued for a season. 

This fourth order of prophets lasted from John the 
Baptist until the death of the last apostle. With 
John, the son of Zebedee, on the Isle of Patmos, the 
name and spirit ceased, as it had ceased with the 
generation of Moses in Moab, and with Malachi in 
an unknown land. But now it ceased forever. The 
book and _ spirit of prophecy were then and there 
closed. Rome, through pope and priest, may assert 
the contrary ; it will avail nothing. She may listen 
with open ear until doomsday, but will never hear 
prophetic word or syllable. New Lights may startle 
us with pretended disclosures from another world ; 
but it is in vain. 

During the past eighteen hundred years the world 
has not advanced one step in the actual revelation of 
supernatural truth. Despite all efforts, nothing new 
can be discovered. All things remain as they were 
since Christ and his apostles. Past revelations may 
be better arranged, systematized, and harmonized. 
Nothing essential can be added to or taken from 
them. The book of revelation is closed. 

In the peculiar, biblical, Hebrew sense of the word, 
St. John was the last of the prophetic order. The 
patriarchs communed with God and his messengers 
until the time of Moses. Moses and those with him 
declared all the truth necessary for the people to 
know, and all that they would profit by until the 
days of the judges should end and those of the kings 
begin. Malachi and his immediate predecessors de- 

Hs . 


18 CREDO. 


clared all that was needed for the direction and gov- 
ernment of the nation until the old dispensation should 
end and the new begin. Lastly, Christ and his disci- 
ples proclaimed to the world all the truths requiring 
for their discovery divine inspiration, or essential for 
men’s welfare until the heavens and the earth are no 
more. We shall need henceforth expounders and 
keepers of the sacred writings. We shall have them. 
The inspired Word will live forever. God has guard- 
ed the Scriptures in the past, and will guard them in 
the future, as the apple of hiseye. They have suffered 
from no essential addition or diminution. They have 
been stereotyped by Providence. The history of their 
preservation is marvellous. The Jewish Church was 
their first divinely-commissioned guardian. While in 
its keeping they were so carefully preserved, for hun- 
dreds and hundreds of years, that the scribes and 
elders could tell the number of words they contained, 
the number of letters, the middle word, and the mid- 
dle letter, of any given book, and of the entire Scrip- 
tures. Never in the history of the world have writings 
been kept with such scrupulous exactness, though they 
recorded the revolts of the nation and rebuked the sins 
of the people. 

Later, and just at a time when the Jewish common- 
wealth would be the most strongly tempted to mis- 
interpret and mar these prophetic declarations, they 
were taken from the Jews and committed to the care 
of the early Roman church, and it became a divinely- 
appointed agent of preservation. Still later, and at 
a time when danger threatened them in the house of 
these professed friends, they were wrested from the 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 19 


Catholic church, as they had been from the Jewish, 
and Evangelical Christianity became their body-guard. 
They were removed from the monasteries that had 
been built to protect them from fire and plunder through 
pagan and Jewish persecutions ; they were taken from 
the hands of devoted monks, who had been commis- 
sioned to preserve them during the conflagrations of 
the world’s literature accumulated in the libraries of 
Rome and Alexandria, and given, not to one church, 
but to the world. They were no longer to be locked 
in the embrace of dead languages, and read only by 
the learned, but were to be translated into every 
tongue, and become the light and joy of the whole 
earth. Tyndale, and after him the scholars of King 
. James’s court, were appointed to translate them ; 
Luther was commissioned to thunder their truths in 
the Diets and cities of Germany; and in every age 
preachers have since been called, and will continue to 
be called, to declare their warnings against evil, and 
to comfort by their promises the hearts of God’s peo- 
ple. Were the book supernatural,—as its friends 
claim it to be, — could we require a more remarkable 
preservation and history? 

But, turning from the writings of these Hebrew 
and Jewish prophets, let us glance for a moment at 
their character and the peculiarities of their mission. 

In some respects the Old and New Testament 
prophets were similar. They felt they were called 
to their work, not by the authority of the church, not 
by the exigencies of the times, but by the Voice of 
God and of Christ. They often shrank from entering 
upon their mission, and sometimes trembled and wept 
while uttering their prophecies. 


20 CREDO. 


Kings, priests, and ministers were ordained and 
consecrated; but not one of the prophets received 
such human ordinance. They went forth exclaiming, 
‘* Woe is me if I declare not the truth as I have heard 
it.” They were called from no especial class of men, 
confined to no caste or rank of society, but were from 
every position and profession. ‘* They discharged the 
ordinary duties of citizens.” They were soldiers, 
kings, herdsmen, wandering Arabs, peasants, and 
fishermen. They lived among the people, in cot- 
tages, courts, in the halls of the temple, and on the 
summits of mountains. ‘‘ They were,” says an emi- 
nent scholar, ‘‘ neither morose ascetics nor unlettered 
fanatics.” They cultivated letters, and would have 
been ornaments to any society. To the poor, op- 
pressed, and neglected they appeared as faithful 
friends; to the selfish, insolent, and frivolous, as im- 
placable foes. They resisted the aggressions of the 
tyrant, and defended the rights of the subject. They 
were ‘ watch dogs,” says Stanley, ‘‘ over every vice 
and crime, abuse and privilege, of society.” They 
taught but one theology and one religion. It was 
equally free from fanaticism and formality. Beyond 
it modern civilization has not advanced one step. — 
The Unity of God was their doctrine first and last. 
Among all the corruptions of the surrounding na- 
tions, the forty thousand deities of Egypt, the lords 
many and gods many of the Greeks and Romans, 
they deciared that there was but one God; and the 
sublime declaration, ‘* Ye believe in God, believe also 
in me,” in the light of Evangelical Christianity, is but 
a confirmation of the same. <A right life or a strug- 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 21 


gle towards it, a cross and every man on it or at its 
foot, was the burden of their religious creed. They 
cared little for the forms and ceremonies of religion, 
but everything for its life and spirit. Do right and 
live, Do wrong and die, were their constant exhorta- 
tion and warning to the people. ‘* To obey is better 
than sacrifice ;” ** The sacrifices of God are a broken 
spirit; ‘* What doth the Lord require of thee but 
to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
with thy God?” ‘Cease to do evil and learn to do 
well,’ — furnish a creed of practical Christianity, 
whose loftiness and purity silence all the vapid decla- 
mations of the New Lights of modern sia! against 
an antiquated Bible. 

The teachings of the prophets are not, and never 
can be, antiquated. Truths which have ever flowed 
down into all the crevices of thought and society, and 
which have crystallized into gems, into gold, into dia- 
monds, prove a most exalted authorship. 

The Hebrew prophets were something more than 
mere protectors and educators of the people. ‘* They 
were religious teachers,” says an eminent English 
scholar,* ‘* without the faults of religious teachers.” 

The palmiest days of Greece and Rome can furnish 
no higher examples of patriotism than does this entire 
class of disinterested champions of morality and vir- 
tue. The struggles of Moses in Egypt and on Mount 
Horeb, the wail of Jeremiah over the desolations of 
Judea, and the tears of Christ on the Mount of Olives 
over the sins of Jerusalem, tell the continued story 


* A. P. Stanley, to whom we are not a little indebted. 


22 CREDO. 


of the love they bore their cherished country and kin- 
dred people. 

As a class, they were independent and fearless 
men. They speak as if they had talked with God — 
rather as if God had talked with them. They felt 
the importance and authority of the commission with 
which they had been honored. 

” and ‘* Speak my words unto them 
incited them to 


‘¢ Be not afraid, 
whether they will hear or forbear,” 
reprove evil, whether met in the persons of kings, 
priests, or common people. They rarely turned to 
the right hand or the left, but frequently moved on to 
meet persecution and death in the discharge of duty. 

They were not accustomed to ask, What is, safe? 
What is prudent? or, What is expedient? but, What 
is true and right? Amid scenes of danger they stood 
as rocks against which the spray beats harmlessly. 
Moses before Pharaoh, Elijah before Ahab, Isaiah 
before Ahaz, Nathan before David, John before 
Herod, the greatest and divinest of all — nay, the 
Great and Divine One Himself — before the Phari- 
sees in the temple, are examples of the sublimest 
heroism on record. 

But the Hebrew prophets were something more 
than mere teachers, patriots, and heroes. In some 
instances they were literary men of the highest order, 
and in every instance of peculiar endowments. They 
have leit ‘‘a literature unique in the history of the 
world.” * Historians merely they were not; neither 
chronologists nor copyists, in the ordinary sense of 


* Stanley. 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 23 


these terms. They claimed that their disclosures were 
the ebullitions of a divine voice. No one of the 
prophets pretended to speak from personal knowledge 
or personal authority, from sagacity or clairvoyance, 
but by the supernatural revelation of truth from 
heaven. No modern political philosopher, though he 
has been able to predict future events accurately, has 
ever ventured to advance a claim like this as the ground 
of his knowledge and authority. Neither Burke, nor 
Webster, nor any of the politicians of 1812 or 1860 
who saw with remarkable clearness beyond the visible 
political horizon, ever claimed that they were passive 
in their utterances. They confessed they knew of but 
one way of judging respecting the future ; that is, from 
the past. 

They reasoned, therefore, from the past to the future, 
from cause to eflect; and there were, in most Cases, 
visible causes operating to produce the fulfilment of 
what they predicted. 

But the Hebrew prophets linked nothing with po- 
litical or probable evidence, though they spoke of 
moral and spiritual issues. Their prophecies were based 
upon no arbitrary or fantastic accomplishments, though 
connected with moral and religious rectitude and dere- 
liction. They present to the world but one assurance, 
the “word of the Lord came unto me, saying,” 
was the thrilling and inspiring introduction and con- 
clusion of all their discourses. ‘* Moved upon, they 
spake,” is the only solution of what would otherwise 
be an inexplicable phenomenon. 

The prophets also claimed that the very words they 
employed were not their own, but Jehovah’s. In some 


24 CREDO. 


instances their words seemed to be as much beyond 
their control as the thoughts they expressed. They 
were often left not fully to comprehend the facts they 
disclosed. We cannot doubt that the prophets be- 
lieved in the existence of the strictest verbal inspira- 
tion. No one can doubt the Posscbility of such inspi- 
ration who is acquainted with the phenomena either 
of ancient or modern demoniacal possession. No 
one can doubt the mecess¢ty of such inspiration who 
imagines common peasants, as the prophets in some 
cases were, filled with the sublimest thoughts ever 
penned, and then left to express them as best they 
might. Such inspiration would be tantalizing beyond 
endurance; but if their lips were touched by the 
finger of God, when necessary, then they would not 
falter for word or expression. A miracle should be 
introduced only when and so far as is absolutely neces- 
sary in accounting for given phenomena. If the his- 
toric portions of the Scriptures and the simple narra- 
tion of facts require that the writer be elevated merely 
and borne on by the Holy Spirit in his work, then 
verbal inspiration in these portions must give place to 
the infusion or impression of ideas. We do not decide. 
In either case, however, the writer must be inspired 
to such an extent as to be beyond the possibility of 
making a mistake both in the sclection and statement of 
those facts which are in strictest accordance with the 
divine will. 

From what has been said, does it not appear that 
the prophetic order of the Jewish church stands alone 
and unequalled in the history of the race? Are not 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 25 


those men who at the present time lay claim to simi- 
lar inspiration, lunatics? 

The second general inquiry proposed is concern- 
ing the direct evidence that the Hebrew and Jewish 
prophets were supernaturally aided in their disclosures 
of the future. 

About twenty-five hundred years ago, the ancient 
capital of the Assyrian empire, situated on the east- 
ern bank of the Tigris, six hundred miles from Jeru- 
salem, rivalled, in internal wealth, extensive commerce, 
and splendid architecture, all existing cities of the 
world, save one. Jonah describes it as an ‘* exceeding 
great city.” Diodorus says that its circuit was some- 
what more than fifty-four miles. Its walls contained 
fifteen hundred impregnable towers, were one hundred 
feet high, and sufficiently broad to admit of three char- 
iots driven abreast. It was founded by the grandson 
of Noah, and was a nation’s pride for nearly fifteen 
hundred years. Some idea of its extent may be gath- 
ered from Jonah’s passage through its busy streets, 
when he was sent to warn its people and urge them 
to repentance. He journeyed on, everywhere raising 
his voice of alarm, from street to street, from square to 
square, past courts and temples, for twenty miles, even 
to the king’s palace. He had then traversed but one 
third of the entire length of its principal thoroughfare. 
Infidels have laughed at the idea of a city then existing 
of such dimensions. They have said that prophets 
and historians wrote such descriptions from ‘* their 
own puny ideas of extent and magnilicence.” Twenty 
years ago, a believer could not dispute them. Little 
was known of the city, save in prophecy and history. 


26 CREDO. 


Later, a learned Frenchman and a wandering English 
scholar, Monsieur Botta and Mr. Layard, sought and 
found the site of this mighty Nineveh. They disen- 
tombed it. Beneath its shrouds of sand and ruin, they 
revealed to the astonished world the identical place 
where the captive tribes of Israel toiled and wept. 
They stood among its ruined temples and pillars, upon 
which, in the bloom of its greatness, the eyes of 
Jonah and Ezekiel looked as they passed through its 
lordly streets. Marble slabs have been excavated from 
its ruins, upon which was written the story of the 
existence and extent of Nineveh. Returning along 
the page of its history to the day of its splendor and 
power, when it could defy the world in wealth or 
arms, a hundred years before the fatal siege com- 
menced, we hear one of the prophets of God, Nahum 
the Elkoshite,—who was sleeping with his fathers long 
before the siege was completed, — exclaiming, “ Be- 
hold, I am against thee, saith the Lord.” ‘I will make 
thy grave... . And it shall come to pass that they 
that look upon thee, shall flee from thee, and say, ‘‘Nine- 
veh is laid waste.” Nahum\5-7. Nahum claimed that 
he heard these words from the lips of the Almighty, 
upon whose authority he had pronounced the city’s 
doom. There is no mistaking his language. It is sim- 
ple and lucid. Do the facts of history confirm or con- 
tradict these lofty professions of inspiration? Lucian 
declared, sixteen hundred years ago, that in his time 
there was no vestige of the city remaining. So silent 
its grave, so heavy its shrouds, that none could mark 
even the spot of its interment. Upon its former great- 
ness, its silence, and its tomb, as well as upon every 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 27 


slab and inscription transported from its disturbed 
ruins to Europe or America, sat the solemn and eter- 
nal genius of Prophecy. A few hundred miles to the 
south of Nineveh, and contemporaneous with it, arose 
another city of great size and magnificence. Its his- 
tory runs back to a time not much later than the flood. 
The records of its early historians give dates two 
thousand years before the conquest of Alexander, and 
the Scriptures represent ‘the beginning of the 
kingdom” as belonging to the time of Nimrod, the 
grandson of Ham. Of its splendor under Nebuchad- 
nezzar there can be no doubt. Pliny says, ‘** It was 
the greatest city the sun ever shone upon.” Isaiah 
called it the ‘Golden City.” Its walls, three hun- 
dred feet in height, according to one of its historians, 
and seventy-five feet in breadth, appeared more like 
the bulwarks of nature than the workmanship of man. 
They were regarded by Strabo as one of the seven 
wonders of the world. The entire area within its 
massive walls, according to Herodotus and Ctesias, 
its chief historians, was two hundred square miles. 
Its temples, its palaces, its fortresses, its brazen gates, 
its enamelled brick, its plated pillars, its huge embank- 
ments along the shores of the Euphrates, its artificial 
mountains as high as the dome of St. Peter’s, its orna- 
mental architecture, its artificial lakes, and its lofty 
palaces, with its hanging gardens piled in successive 
terraces to the top of its walls, displayed more of the 
mighty works of mortals than have ever elsewhere 
been concentrated in one spot on the earth. Such 
was Babylon. And yet, while the city was in its glory, 
while royal power defended it, one hundred and sixty 


28 CREDO. 


years before the foot of an enemy had entered its gates 
or menaced its walls, the prophets of God declared that 
the spearmen and the horsemen from the north should 
deluge the city in blood, and that the Almighty himself 
should sweep it with the besom of destruction. How 
improbable, nay, how impossible! on the very night 
of his overthrow, thought the king, who heeded 
neither the prophecies nor the power of God, the 
predicted name of Cyrus, nor the northern hosts en- 
camped against him. Successive armies have moved 
against ‘** The Mighty,” the “ Golden City,” the 
‘‘Hammer of the whole earth.” Her silence is to-day 
broken by the cry of the bittern and the howl of wild 
beasts. ‘+ Thus saith the Lord of hosts,” wrote Jere- 
miah, ‘* The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly 
broken.” (Jer. li. 58.) This prophecy was not ful- 
filled before it was uttered. The walls were standing, 
as one of the seven wonders of the world, a thousand 
years after the words were spoken. 

The city had been repeatedly conquered by Cyrus, 
Darius, Alexander, Demetrius, Trajan, Julian, and 
Omar, the successor of Mahomet, before the walls 
were utterly broken. St. Jerome states that they were 
standing as late as his time. But in the sixteenth cen- 
tury they were last seen by any European traveller. 
The word had been spoken. Siege after siege, the 
storms of a thousand years, the annual overflow of 
the Euphrates, the sand from the parched desert, and 
the removal of the stones to build other towns and vil- 
lages, have been appointed agents in the hand of God, 
and have left nothing by which those ancient and re- 
nowned walls can now be traced. 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 29 


The words of Isaiah concerning this city were, that 
the wild beasts of the desert should lie there. (Is. xiii. 
21.) ‘*As Il approached the ruins of the great temple 
of Belus,” writes Sir Robert Ker Porter, ‘I saw two 
majestic lions.” The kings of the forest in the king’s 
palaces! ‘ Babylon shall become heaps,” said Jere- 
miah. (Jer. li. 37.) ‘She shall be cast out of her 
grave,” wrote Isaiah. (Is.xiv.19.) ‘* The rapacity of 
the Turks has led them, in searching for treasures, 
to dig up the earth in every direction, leaving it in 
heaps,” says Porter. (Porter’s Zravels.) ‘* Neither 
shall the Arabian pitch his tent there,” was the voice 
of Isaiah. (Is. xiii. 20.) ‘*No Arab,” says Keith, 
‘* however well armed, can be persuaded to remain over- 
night among these ruins, through dread of their being 
the abode of spirits. They traverse them by day, but 
never by night.” Captain Mignan says, ‘‘ It is impos- 
sible to eradicate these superstitious ideas from the 
minds of these people. I saw the sun sink behind the 
Mujelibah, and obeyed, with infinite regret, the sum- 
mons of my guides, — Arabs completely armed, — and 
could not persuade them to remain longer, from the 
apprehension of evil spirits.” (Mignan’s Zravels.) ‘It 
shall never be inhabited,’ ‘*‘ Nor dwelt in from gen- 
eration to generation,” are the united predictions of 
Jeremiah and Isaiah. (Is. xiii. 20. Jer.1.13.) Porter, 
who carefully inspected the entire region, says that 
‘ruins composed, like those of Babylon, of heaps of 
rubbish, impregnated with nitre, doom it to lasting 
sterility.” Rich, in his Memoirs, says, ‘‘ The ruins of 
Babylon can never be cultivated.” In the sixteenth 
century, we are informed that not a house was to be 


30 CREDO. 


seen upon the original site of Babylon. In the nine- 
teenth century it is tenantless. ‘ Babylon shall be an 
astonishment” (Jer. 1. 13) was the voice of prophecy ; 
and Babylon has become an astonishment, is the voice 
of all those who have stood among its desolations, and 
remembered its history. The majestic stream of the 
Euphrates wanders in silent solitude, like an aged pil- 
grim, through its lonely ruins. Upon its banks are 
the river-weeds, and the gray willows on which the 
captives of Israel hung their harps, and refused to be 
comforted while their beloved Jerusalem was not. 
These remain; but not one thing which the proph- 
ets declared should be destroyed, from outer wall to 
inner court, can now be seen in that ancient and 
mighty metropolis of the world. From its palaces, its 
arches, and its terraces, broken and fallen; from this 
throne of the kingdom sitting in the dust; from its 
active life, the thronging of its busy feet, now clad in 
silence, and buried in the grave, — do we not seem to 
hear ascending in solemn grandeur the response, ‘* The 
Lord God Almighty hath spoken it”? 

Less than a thousand miles to the south-west of 
Babylon was Egypt, one of the most civilized of the 
ancient kingdoms. Its learning was proverbial. It 
was the great university of ancient sciences. In it 
astronomy and astrology, chemistry and the art of 
working metals, were more thoroughly studied than 
anywhere else on the globe. Here, also, the industrial 
arts flourished, and the * fine linen of Egypt” found 
its way into Palestine, while its delightful climate and 
fertile soil made it the granary of the world. 

Other countries might suffer from drought; there 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 31 


would be none in Egypt. It was renowned for its 
august burials, its impressive ceremonies, its extended 
catalogue of mighty kings, and its majestic pyramids ; 
standing under whose imposing shadows, it is not sur- 
prising that Napoleon thrilled his troops when he 
exclaimed, ‘“ Soldiers, forty centuries are now looking 
down upon you!” While at the height of its prosper- 
ity, predictions were uttered against this country ; not, 
as against Nineveh and Babylon, that her monuments 
and walls should find their grave, but that the waters 
of its seas should fail, that its former enterprising spirit 
should forsake it, and that it should become a base 
and despicable kingdom. The exact predictions from 
the prophet Isaiah were these: “The Lord shall ut- 
terly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.” (Is. xi. 
15.) ‘The waters shall fail from the sea.” Poole R. 
Stewart, of the British Museum, says that ‘¢ an impor- 
tant geological change has, in the course of centuries, 
raised the country near the head of the Gulf of Suez. 
Since the Christian era, even, the head of the Gulf has 
retired considerably southward.” ‘The spirit of Egypt 
shall fail in the midst thereof.” (Is. xix..3.) ‘‘ Egypt, 
smitten and accursed,” continues Mr. Stewart, ‘has lost 
all strength and energy. - - - Long oppression has 
taken from her the power and the will to advance.” 
“The paper reeds bythe brooks . . . shall wither, 
and beno more.” (Is. xix.7.) Anciently, the papyrus 
was a common and important plant in Egypt, and of 
its leaves the famous paper was manufactured. ‘ But 
now,” says the author above quoted, ‘‘it is there al- 
most, or quite, unknown.” Isaiah and Ezekiel both 
predicted that Egypt should become “ the basest of 


32 CREDO. 


kingdoms.” ‘In Egypt,” says Gibbon, “ there is no 
middle class, nobility, clergy, merchants, nor landlords. 
The inhabitants live in mud-walled huts, on the ground 
once occupied by the far-famed palaces of the Pha- 
raohs.”’ 

a; There shall be no more a prince from the land of 
Egypt,” was a prediction of Ezekiel. (Bizek xxxara.) 
Three hundred and fifty years before Christ Egypt 
became subject to the Persians. It was subdued by sey- 
eral other powers, until the Mamelukes usurped con- 
trol in 1250. Since that period, a mode of government 
the most singular and surprising that has ever existed 
was established, and has since been maintained. Tach 
successive ruler has been raised to supreme authority 
from being a stranger or a vassal. From the second 
Persian conquest until our own day, not one native 
ruler of royal blood has occupied its throne. The 
prophecies against Egypt were spoken in language 
easy to be understood, and the facts concerning its 
history are before us. Was it merely scientific knowl- 
_ edge which foretold those geological changes? Was 
it merely political sagacity which foresaw and foretold 
that ages should pass with no native prince to sit upon 
the throne of a country which previously had not been 
deprived of a prince in regular line of succession for 
more than two thousand years? Do such prophecies, 
accomplished in such a manner, uttered without quali- 
fication or comment, dependent upon a thousand con- 
tingencies, a few of which would have rendered the 
whole abortive, require anything less than a divine 
agency in their disclosure or their fulfilment? 

From Egypt looking towards the North East was 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 33 


another country, which included the most hallowed 
and sacred spot on earth. This now claims our at- 
tention. Eighty years ago, a French infidel, by name 
Count de Volney, left his home in Paris to visit the 
East with the avowed purpose of testing, by every 
means at his command, the truthfulness and accuracy 
of the statements that had been made by former trav- 
ellers and explorers. His merits as an accurate delin- 
eator of the countries he visited have placed him in 
the front rank of this class of writers. “As a scep- 
tic,” says Keith, ‘* he was one of the most zealous par- 
tisans and successful promoters of infidelity.” ‘He 
took every occasion,” says the British Encyclopedia, 
‘to hold up the contents of the Scriptures to the 
mockery and derision of mankind.” Such the man 
and his mission. The results of his patient and 
critical investigations are before us, and we pause to 
compare them with the words of ancient prophecy.* 
Concerning Syria, fifteen hundred years before 
Christ, Moses declared that ‘the stranger that shall 
come from a far land, even all nations, shall say, 
Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto this land? 
What meaneth the heat of this great anger? ” (Deut. 
XXIX. 22-24.) Speaking of his journey through this 
region, Volney says, ‘‘I wandered over the country. 
Great God! from whence proceed such melancholy 
revolutions? Why are so many cities destroyed? 
Why is not their ancient population reproduced and 
perpetuated?” Says the prophecy of Ezeiie! ‘¢ Rob- 


* For the selection and translation of the parallelisms here 
given, and for many other valuable thoughts on prophecy, we 
are chiefly indebted to the works of Dr. Alexander Keith. 

3 


34 CREDO. m 
= 
bers shall enter into it and defile it.” (Ezek. vii. 7- 
22.) ‘* The government,” says Volney, “‘is far from 
disapproving a system of robbery and plunder.” In 
Jeremiah we read, ‘‘ Every one that passeth by shall 
be astonished.” (Jer. xviii. 16.) ‘* So feeble a popula- 
tion in so excellent a country,” writes Volney, ‘* may 
well excite our astonishment.” ‘Your highways 
shall be desolate.” (Lev. xxvi. 22.) ‘¢ There are nei- 
ther great roads (or highways) nor bridges,” writes 
Volney. “It is remarkable that we never saw a 
wagon nor a cart inall Syria.” ‘‘ The wayfaring man 
shall cease.” (Is. xxxiii. 8.) ‘¢ Nobody travels alone.” 
(Volney.) ‘* All the merry-hearted shall sigh.” (Isa. 
xxiv. 8.) ‘* To hear their plaintive strains it is al- 
most impossible to refrain from tears.” (Volney.) 
‘* The joy of the harp shall cease.” , (Isa. xxiv. 8.) 
‘‘Such instruments as ‘they have are detestable.” 
(Volney.) ‘The mirth of the land shall depart.” 
(Isa. xxiv. 11.) ‘* The inhabitants never laugh.” 
(Volney.) ‘* Upon the land of my people shall come 
up thorns and briers.”/ (Isa. xxxii. 13.) ‘¢ The earth 
produces only briers and wormwood.” (Volney.) 
‘“‘ Because they have transgressed the law, shall the 
curse devour the earth.» (Isa. xxiv. 5, 6.) ‘* God has 
doubtless pronounced a secret malediction against the 
earth.” (Volney.) ‘I will bring your sanctuaries 
into desolation.’’// (Amos vii. .9.) ‘* The temples are 
thrown down.” (Volney.) ‘* The palaces shall be 
forsaken.”\(Isa. xxxii. 14.) “The palaces are de- 
molished?” (Volney.) ‘I will destroy the remnant of 
the sea-coast.” »(Ezek. xxv. 16.) ‘* The ports are filled 
up.” (Volney.) ‘I will make your cities waste.” 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 35 


: (Lev. xxvi. 31.) ‘* The towns are destroyed.” (Vol- 

ney.) ‘*Few men are left.”;5 (Isa. xxiv. 6.) ‘The 
earth is stripped of inhabitants.” (Volney.) ‘I will 
make the land desolate.”’’,(Isa. xxiv. 1.) ‘+ It seems a 
dreary, burning place.” (Volney.) In this one sen- 
tence from Volney, beginning with ‘ the temples are 
thrown down,” without the necessary addition or alter- 
ation of a single word, he has clearly, though uncon- 
sciously, shown the fulfilment of no less than six definite 
and distinct predictions. Though he entered Palestine 
without a pilgrim’s spirit, have not his long sojourn in 
it, his careful researches, and his published works 
made him of more value to the church than would 
have been the journey thither of a thousand ordinary 
though sincere pilgrims? ‘+ This infidel chief,” Keith 
well remarks, ‘‘ contends like an indomitable hero, and 
reasons like an irrefutable philosopher in our behalf.” 
Like Gibbon in some of his statements, seemingly 
self-forgetful, he is borne on to conclusions utterly sub- 
versive of his own principles, reiterating, almost word 
for word, the prophecies with which he is not familiar, 
knowing of them only to hate them. How blind are 
the wilfully blinded! A man in a rayless dungeon 
may doubt the shining ofthe stars. But unless he 
bandage his eyes, can he go forth in a cloudless night, 
when the heavens are throbbing with beauty, and say 
there are no stars? Can any one familiar with the 
facts before us fail to see that history is prophecy ful- 
filled? As we enlarge the circle of our observation, 
can we remain destitute of humble veneration for the 
sacred Scriptures? See! Zion is ‘* ploughed as a 
field.’ The great city of Samaria is occupied as “a 


36 CREDO. 


vineyard.” The princely Tyre is “a plain” in part, 
in part a sea bottom on which “ fishermen spread 
their nets.” The cots of shepherds have supplanted 
the royal palaces of the lords of the Philistines. Am- 
mon has become ‘a stable for camels.” The tem- 
ple of ancient Petra is ‘a court for owls.” Askelon 
has become “ a desolation.” Ishmael is ‘a wild man.” 
The Jews are‘ wanderers.” The inhabitants of Moab 
are ‘* dwellers among the rocks ” which border on the 
Dead Sea. 

Where shall we pause? All things come to our 
aid. Sceptics are our allies. As they continue to 
write the Progressive History of Man and Nations, 
the Rise and Fall of Empires,— as they weigh the nat- 
ural sciences against revelation, accumulating evi- 
dence and piling up the results of their erudite 
researches into what they think and declare will be 
dark and formidable pyramids in the Christian world, 
—have we not ample reason to believe that, as in 
the past, so in the future, they will continue unwit- 
tingly to render the church effective aid? Is not the 
day hastening when all these lofty pyramids are to be 
taken down by the believer, and by him reconsecrated 
and transferred,to the foundation which standeth sure, 
and reconstructed into the sublime temple of God’s 
truth and prophecy ? 

‘“¢ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the 
word of our God shall stand forever,” 


.$ 


om 


ASRS IR ’ i as 
mS fer) 4 HOR PLN ee Cregeen beset Oe at ae 
; arene: sake Sobel hha § ed CFs, 

. 5] ~ . aoe ae 


a Ses 


ks % ied ray oe 
PALA ee ha: > 


: a b 


‘‘ Remember the former things of old: for Tam God, and 
there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me; de- 
claring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times 
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall 
stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Jsazah xlvi. 9, Io. 


‘‘ Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. 
And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in 
thy mouth. 

‘< See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the 
kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and 


to throw down, to build, and to plant.” Seremiah i. 5, 9, 10. 


‘‘ Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, 
ye may believe that lam he.” Sohn xiii. 19. - 


‘‘ The perfection of reason calls the mind to a living obser- 
vation of living facts.” The Reasoner, Oct. 5, 1853. 


‘¢ A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” 
HuME. 


(38) 


Il. 


PROPHECIES 


RESPECTING EXISTING NATIONALITIES. 


N amount of prescience sufficient to disclose a 
future transaction seems the more wonderful in 
an economy not of absolute predestination, but of 
perfect freedom. The cursing or blessing of prophe- 
cy, whether immediate or remote, is subject, in every 
instance, to the voluntary choice of the individual, or 
the nation. Men can occasion or prevent, hasten or 
retard, any given moral or spiritual event. They can 
hasten the millennium, or defer it; accelerate the 
coming of Christ, or postpone it. Hence, if a prophet 
is able to foretell the future fate of a nation or an 
individual, in a world where events happen, not be- 
cause they are foretold, but because it was known that 
they would happen in accordance with the free voli- 
tion of men, he must, beyond question, be assisted 
supernaturally. 
Though God could as easily have foretold the dates 
of prophetic events as the events themselves, yet he 


has, for the best of reasons, remained the sole pos- 
(39) 


40 CREDO. 


sessor of the precise time when events are to transpire. 
He has not revealed to the prophets, nor to the angels 
in heaven, ‘the day or the hour.” When the prophet 
received his message from the spirit or mouth of 
God, the dates were not only withheld, but even the 
chronological order of the events. It was as if the 
prophet had been permitted to look at the landscape, 
without being able to tell which object was nearest or 
most remote. There were the picture and the terms 
to be employed. Over them or under them the dates 
were not engraved. These were left to be inscribed 
by the free agent himself; left to take us by surprise, 
like the coming of the Son of Man, or like a thief in 
the night. God seems to have said to his prophets, 
as Christ did to his disciples, “It is not for you to 
know the times or the seasons which the Father hath 
put in his own power.” This thought, it is hoped, 
will relieve the perplexity existing in some minds 
respecting the apparent confusion in the order of 
events as prophesied and as fulfilled. 

The three principal races of mankind, though they 
have intermingled one with another, and have under- 
gone many revolutions, remain comparatively distinct. 

The descendants of Shem — the Mongolians — in- 
clude the Persians, Assyrians, Arabs, Israelites, Chi- 
nese, Mexicans, and North American Indians. The 
descendants of Japhet the Caucasians — include 
the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Spaniards, and Anglo- 
Saxons. And the descendants of Ham — the Afri- 
cans — find their leading and living representative in 
the Negro, the native inhabitant of that region of 
Africa lying south of the Atlas Mountains. Four 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 41 


thousand years ago, coeval with the deluge, when the 
members of a single household included the entire 
race of mankind, a prediction was uttered by a ser- 
vant of God, and recorded in sacred history, respect- 
ing these three great divisions of the human family. 
The unnatural conduct of Ham, the respectful be- 
havior of his brothers Shem and Japhet towards their 
aged father on a certain occasion, gave rise to it, and 
‘*Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he 
be;” ‘** Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; Canaan 
shall be his servant;” ‘‘ God shall enlarge Japhet, 
and Canaan shall be his servant,” was the prophecy 
that awaited fulfilment. (Gen. ix. 25, 27.) 

Thomas Paine once observed, “If there are proph- 
ets of God, we should expect them to foretell fu- 
turé events in such terms as could be understood.” 
The terms employed in the present instance are un- 
mistakable, and answer his condition. The evident 
meaning respecting Ham and his descendants is, that 
they were to become slaves. It is true that they have 
not always been such; for a part of his descendants 
once disputed with the Romans the empire of the 
world, and all of them were once as free from slavery 
as the rest of mankind. The prophecies rolled on to 
their accomplishment. Tyre fell before the arms of 
Alexander; Carthage yielded to Roman conquerors ; 
and Canaan became, as predicted, the servant of Ja- 
phet, as the earlier Canaan had been to Shem, his 
brother. Since that time, Africa has been distin- 
guished above all countries of the globe as the land 
and home of slavery. It seems natural to enslave its 
people. Slaves at home, they have been transported 


42 CREDO. 


to other countries for slaves. The bondmen of the 
West Indies, of Brazil, Arabia, and America have — 
been, and are, from this unfortunate and inthralled 
race. The nations of the earth have seemed to vie 
with one another in fulfilling prophecy, and in mak- 
ing the descendants of Ham the “slave of slaves and 
servant of servants.” But, if this be true, it is some- 
times asked, Is it not right to enslave them? A false 
view of this question having blinded many sincere 
Christian people, it calls for a passing remark. 

It is one thing to reveal an evil, and quite another 
to sanction it. ‘The wrath of man shall praise 
God;” but it has nothing of righteousness on that 
account. Nebuchadnezzar was the instrument of 
divine judgment, but was none the less guilty. He 
was sent to find his dwelling among the beasts of 
the field. Pharaoh was likewise,employed to work 
for God. For his sins he was drowned in the sea. 
Christ was delivered into the hands of his enemies. 
They were none the less ‘“ wicked hands that slew 
him.” | 

God is not an accomplice in iniquity because he 
foreknows it, nor were the prophets because they 
foretold it. They foretold the sins of the people, 
and at the same time deplored them. The principle 
is simply this: The foreknowledge or the foretelling 
of a future event has nothing to do with its moral 
character. 

God has Zermitted nations to enslave the African 
people. He never willed it. He has opposed it. 
He let fail, in consequence, an almost crushing blow 
on the American people, and holds another in sus- 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 43 


pense above them; for he will not regard any peo- 
ple guiltless who follow other than the Golden Rule. 

Returning, we are met by this question: Unless 
God communicated the events of the future to his 
people directly, or through his prophets, how was it 
possible that it should have been foreknown and fore: 
told, ages beforehand, that the descendants of Ham 
would become the slaves of the world? Or, if it is 
true, as some have said, that they became bondmen 
because they were peculiarly adapted to such a con- 
dition, — so constituted as to be satisfied with the slave 
cabin and banjo, — how was that continued adapta- 
tion foreknown? Or, knowing it, how ventured the 
prophets to utter other prophecies of golden hue, 
which mark the conclusion of the long servitude of 
this people? By what means was it known, in those 
dark ages, that every yoke should be broken, that 
the oppressed should go free, and that they should 
take their places among the rulers of the nations in 
which they had dwelt? Such authority comes from 
Heaven. We await other inevitable issues. A won- 
derful transformation, and a reconciliation of broken 
fraternal relations throughout the world, will soon 
take place, such as history has not yet recorded. 
Otherwise the prophets had not spoken. The once 
‘“‘accursed African” will take his seat, by the suf- 
frages of the people, in the halls of state and national 
legislation. One of the future presidents of the Amer- 
ican republic may be a black man, who will not per- 
haps disgrace the position as it has been disgraced by 
Faphet, his brother. We await, in sure confidence, 
the accomplishment, concerning this people, of all un- 
fulfilled prophecy. 


44 CREDO. 


We pass to other nationalities. It was announced 
that Shem and his descendants were to be a blessing 
to the world. Accordingly, from them have sprung 
the Hebrew Commonwealth, the Jewish Church, the 
Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Sacred Scriptures, Christ, 
and Christianity. The man must be blind, indeed, 
to the weal of humanity, who does not pronounce that 
family signally blessed of God which was chosen to 
purify the religions of the world, advance its civiliza- 
tion, and give to it the only faultless life that ever 
breathed its air or walked its surface. It was an- 
nounced that Japhet and his descendants should en- 
large their borders. What shore has not echoed to 
the conquering tread of the lordly Caucasian ? 

These several prophecies, in some respects, are 
the most remarkable on record. They were delivered 
in the infancy of the post-diluvian world, and their 
undeniable fulfilment has reached down through forty 
centuries to the present time. The mind almost stag- 
gers under such weighty facts. As the African, bend- 
ing under his burden, passes before us; as Christianity, 
from its Mongolian home, presses onward to the re- 
demption of the world; and as the Caucasian extends 
his conquests over the whole earth, — how can we fail 
to hear the repeated echo of the voice of Jehovah, 
which was spoken to the survivors of the flood? 

But later prophecies concerning two branches of the 
family of Shem, the Arabian and Jewish, now claim 
our attention. ‘They constituted, with the Egyptians, 
the three most distinguished nations of remote anti- 
quity embraced in the Mongolian division. Of the 
Arabians, there are, and always have been, two classes 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 45 


—the fixed, or agricultural, who inhabit villages, 
and the nomadic, or wandering tribes, who are the 
modern Bedouins. The early history of both classes 
is somewhat involved in myth and mystery. Their 
language and ancient inscriptions indicate that the 
fixed tribes are mixed in their progeniture, while the 
Bedouins have remained distinct, and are more prop- 
erly and purely the descendants of Ishmael. When 
we speak of the Ishmaelites, we must refer to the 
Bedouins especially, and not indiscriminately to all 
the inhabitants of Arabia. 

A thousand years after the date of the prophecies 
spoken concerning the sons of Noah, and while the 
bond-woman of Egypt, the consort-wife of Abraham, 
Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, was wandering from 
the threshold of her home into the wilderness, more 
than three thousand years ago, she was met by a mys- 
terious angel-prophet, who told her that the son she 
bore should be called Ishmael; that he should be a 
wild man; that his hand should be against every man, 
and every man’s hand against him ; that his seed should 
be multiplied exceedingly, and that he should become 
a great nation. (Gen.xvi. 10-12.) Have the Ishmael- 
ites become such a people? Their history and present 
condition furnish our answer. They have always been 
recognized as the dreaded enemies of mankind. Their 
hospitality is found only in exaggerated and question- 
able fables. Their plundering and belligerent pro- 
pensities are the same, whether we encounter them 
in the past or in the present, in the land of Shinar, in 
the valleys of Spain, on the banks of the Tigris, in 
Araby the Blessed, or Araby the Barren. Give them 


46 CREDO. 


the desert for their home, the horse and spear for their 
companions, murder and rapine for their recreation, 
and they will envy no man his wealth, and no monarch 
his throne. Though surrounded for ages by flourish- 
ing and polished nations, they have maintained their 
unchanged, unsubdued, and predicted character. They 
have not only retained their original characteristics, but 
have remained through the past, and still are in the pres- 
ent, a great and powerful nation. As a body, they 
have escaped the yoke of the most victorious monarchies 
surrounding them. The armies of Sesostris and Cy- 
rus, of Pompey and Trajan, were repeatedly sent 
against, but never subdued them. The power of Great 
Britain, which has established a residence in almost 
every country, has been able to enter their territories 
only to accomplish the predetermined destruction of 
some fortified place, and then retire without securing 
a foothold. The Sultan of Turkey, their nominal 
ruler, has been compelled to pay them a yearly tax, or 
be refused permission to transport his caravans across 
their plains to Mecca. Their conquests in the past 
have included the greater part of the temperate zone. 
They are found to-day in force throughout Northern 
Africa, on the'continental shores of the Persian Gulf, 
and in the plains of Syria and Mesopotamia. ‘Their 
empire extends from India to the Atlantic Ocean, and 
embraces a wider range of territory than was possessed 
by the Romans at the time they were styled ‘the 
lords of the world.” No nationality on earth can with 
such manifest propriety wear the double prophetic 
epithet of ‘‘wild and mighty.” How was it possible 
for that poor bond-woman Hagar, as she sat houseless 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 47 


and disconsolate by the fountain in the wilderness, to 
have discovered and foretold this remarkable fate of 
her descendants, unless the angel-prophet, commis- 
sioned of Jehovah, according to the Scriptures, had 
first come to her, and made the announcement? 

We turn to other and later prophecies, which con- 
cern the kin of Ishmael, the Israelite. 

The commonwealth of Israel, from its establishment 
to its dissolution, existed more than fifteen hundred 
years. It ended with the fall of Samaria under the 
power of Assyria. At that time the kingdom of Judea 
alone remained erect, and gathered into itself the 
whole spirit and life of the Hebrew nationality. It 
became the representative of the covenant people. 
Other titles gave place to the terms “* Jew” and“ Jewish.” 

It was not far from three thousand two hundred 
years ago, while the ancestors of this people were 
wandering in the wilderness, without a city and with- 
out a home, that their great leader and prophet fore- 
told their sins and destiny. ‘Thus saith the Lord,” 
was his authority, and these the words that he spake 
and recorded: ‘+I will scatter you among the heathen.” 
(Lev. xxvi. 33.) ‘* Ye shall flee as fleeing from the 
sword.” (Lev. xxvi. 36.) ‘‘ Ye shall have no power 
to stand before your enemies.” (Lev. xxvi.37.) ‘ Yet 
for all that I will not cast them away, neither will I 
destroy them utterly.” (Lev. xxvi. 44.) ‘* The Lord 
shall bring thee into a nation which neither thou nor 
thy fathers have known.” (Deut. xxviii. 36.) ‘* Thou 
shalt become an astonishment, and a proverb, and a 
by-word among all the nations whither the Lord shall 
lead thee.” (Deut. xxviii. 37). And all these plagues 


48 CREDO. 


shall be upon thee for a stg” and a wonder, and upon 
thy seed forever.” (Deut. xxviii. 46.) ‘And thou 
shalt be plucked off the land that thou goest to pos- 
sess.” (Deut. xxviii. 63.) ‘* And the Lord shall scatter 
thee-among all people, from one end of the earth even 
unto the other.” (Deut. xxviii. 64.) ‘* Neither shall 
the sole of thy foot have rest.” (Deut. xxviii. 65.) 

The voice of the third prophetic age did not contra- 
dict that of the second. While Jerusalem was sur- 
rounded with its sacred attractions, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
and others, who possessed ali the Jewish characteris- 
tics, pointed down the path of history to the day when 
God was to blast the people and their city as with 
mildew. They declared that their marked and national 
exclusiveness should not shield them from utter dis- 
persion; that their patriotism, which was never sur- 
passed, should not secure to them a city or a country ; 
that their theocracy, which had been * festooned with 
the garlands of centuries,” should be superseded, and 
their temple-worship, which had been observed for so 
many ages, should be forever obliterated. 

Those prophets, one after another, declared and re- 
corded the blindness of the people, their ceaseless 
wanderings, their impenitence, avarice, pusillanimity, 
spoliation, and unextinguishable existence. 

Later, one of the fourth order of prophets, the Great 
Prophet Himself, appeared in the temple, and con- 
firmed the declarations of the second and third orders. 
With mingled entreaty and warning, he announced 
that the sufferings of this people should be such as had 
never been heard of. ‘* There shall be great tribula- 
tion,” was his language, ‘‘such as was not from the 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 49 


beginning of the world to this time,—no, nor ever 
shall be.” (Matt. xxiv. 21.) ‘Jerusalem shall be 
trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the 
Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke xxi. 24.) Here, then, 
we have this vast array of prophecy concerning 
the Jews clearly stated, repeated, and _ intensified. 
Our questions are brief. Have the persecutions 
and sufferings predicted of this doomed race be- 
fallen them? Have they been dispersed among the 
nations of the earth? Have they remained, amid 
their dispersions, a distinct and peculiar people? 

Beginning with the Passover a few years after the 
death of Christ, we are informed that, while two or three 
million Jews were assembled in Jerusalem, they were 
suddenly surrounded by the Romans. Three different 
factions within the city began to murder one another. 
The unburied dead produced a pestilence. Starvation 
drove the people to cannibalism. Their temple was 
fired, and six thousand fell beneath its ruins. Proba- 
bly not less than one million one hundred thousand 
perished during a siege of only six months. We are 
also informed that the whole extent of Jerusalem, ex- 
cept three towers and a small part of the wall, was 
levelled to the ground. The ploughshare has since 
torn up the very foundations of the sacred city. 

All this was but the prelude of their mournful suf 
ferings. Trace their history through the reign of the 
emperors. Adrian slew five hundred and eighty thou- 
sand Jews in battle. Constantine regarded them as 
‘the most hateful of all nations;” and, after having 
suppressed one of their revolts, he commanded their 
ears to be cut off, and then dispersed them as vaga- 


4 


50 CREDO. 


bonds throughout different countries. Adrian for- 
bade them under penalty of death to approach within 
three miles of the walls of Jerusalem. Justinian de- 
stroyed all their synagogues and abolished their public 
worship. The Triumphal Arch at Rome and the 
Coliseum, built by them as slaves, within whose walls 
they were the first victims slain, bespeak alike their 
early bondage and misfortunes. So bitter was this 
spirit of persecution, that had it continued, the ex- 
tinction of the Jewish race must soon have followed. 
A change was for some reason providentially inaugu- 
rated. 

Succeeding the emperors, especially during the 
reign of Charlemagne, there was a period of Jewish 
prosperity. The storm that had raged so long and 
fiercely, cleared away. The troubled waters on which 
they had been tossed were soothed to rest. It seemed 
as if the world, by universal consent, had resolved to 
give this oppressed people time and opportunity to 
replenish their treasures and recuperate their wasted 
strength. Throughout the domains of the caliphs, 
in the East, in Africa, in Spain, and in the Byzantium 
Empire, the Jews were not only allowed to pursue 
unmolested their lucrative and enterprising  traflic, 
they were not only merchants of splendor and opu- 
lence, but they suddenly arose into offices of dignity 
and trust. They administered the finances of Christian 
and Mohammedan kingdoms. They were the ambas- 
sadors of the mightiest kings and sovereigns. It was 
not their religion, their nationality, their genius alone, 
that had given occasion, under the emperors, for their 
peculiar treatment, but a Heaven-permitted and Heay- 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. SI 


en-foretold punishment for a sin involving no ordinary 
degree of guilt. It is true that Christians have also 
been persecuted. This was foretold. They suffered, 
however, not for guilt, as in the case of the Jews, but 
for the glory of God. The period of Jewish prosper- 
ity, of which we were speaking, was not of long con- 
tinuance ; of different duration in different parts of the 
world. Inthe East it was soon interrupted by their 
own civil dissensions, and by the persecutions of the 
Moslemite sovereigns. In the west of Europe it was 
soon succeeded by the age of iron. In Spain the 
sunlight remained longest, but at length set in a total 
night of storms. Mahomet announced to the world 
his doctrine: “*There is but one God, and Mahomet 
is his prophet.” The triumphal battle-cries of his 
followers, ‘* The Koran or death!” Islamism or 
war!” echoed through the valleys of Arabia. The 
Jews were the first whom this pretended prophet en- 
deavored to proselyte. That ‘ God is one” was their 
own creed; but that a prophet to them had sprung 
from the seed of Hagar the bond-woman, they proudly 
denied. They shrank back from him in sullen unbe- 
lief. There was no alternative. The Jews of the 
Arabian peninsula were sold as slaves, were massa- 
cred or banished, until none remained. The edict 
went forth, that the sacred land which had given Ma- 
homet birth should no longer be profaned by the un- 
clean footsteps of an unbeliever. The same bitter 
spirit of persecution thereupon Swept westward. 
Kingdom after kingdom, people after people, tribe 
after tribe, followed the dreadful example of the Ara- 
bian monarch. ‘Hep! Hep! Hep !”— the initials of 


52 CREDO. . 


the words “ Hierosolyma est perdita,” ‘“ Jerusalem is 
destroyed,” which was the actual cry throughout Ger- 
many,— became in spirit well nigh universal. Moham- 
medanism, Catholicism, and nominal Christianity vied 
with one another in calling the people to the work of 
Jewish persecution ; each strove to be first in pealing 
the death-knell of the descendants of Israel. The most 
unreasonable and unjust accusations were brought for- 
ward upon which to condemn them. ‘They were 
physicians: if they healed their patients, they were 
charged with employing satanic influence ; if their 
patients died, they were accused of administering 
poison. They were the advisers of kings: if their ad- 
vice succeeded, they were charged with receiving their 
knowledge from Beelzebub; if it proved detrimental, 
they were arraigned for conspiracy against the realm. 
If they chanced to be poor, they were charged with 
being cursed of God; if rich, with being unlawful ex- 
tortioners. On the most trivial complaints they were 
arrested and condemned. Hundreds suffered death for 
the single — real or imaginary — offence of one. The 
plagues of Northern Europe, the choleras of France, 
the leprosy and epidemics of the East and West, 
North and South, were attributed to them. The poor 
pillaged them; the clergy denounced them ; the rich 
repudiated their loans, and monarchs gained the right 
of entire confiscation. No political or religious move- 
ment sought their weal. The feudal system gave 
neither place nor advantage to the Jews. They could 
not be lords, they were not serfs; they could make 
no claims for protection from any source; there was 
scarcely a city of continental Europe where they were 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 53 


not brutally massacred by the crusaders. Chivalry, the 
mother of so much good to others, was a system of op- 
pression and of almost unmitigated evil to them. Hal- 
lam’s account of their condition in the middle ages is 
short, but significant. ‘They were everywhere the 
objects of popular insult and oppression. A time of 
festivity to others was usually to them a season of 
mockery or massacre.” They were left without ap- 
peal or protection. Every passion in every grade of 
society was let loose upon them. ‘ 

Passing westward, we are informed by history that 
the cry which became popular throughout England 
was, ‘‘ Destroy these enemies of Christ!” At the cor- 
onation of Richard I. they were hunted out that they 
might be butchered. In York they resolved to die by 
their own hands. Fathers with razors cut the throats 
of wives and children, and then committed suicide or 
employed their domestics to kill them. 

In 1277, hundreds were hanged and quartered on 
charge of clipping the coin, of which they were, no 
doubt, guilty, having been driven to it by exorbitant 
taxation. 

In 1287, all the Jews of the realm were ordered to 
be apprehended ina single day. Their goods were 
confiscated to the king, and they, to the number of fif- 
teen thousand six hundred and sixty, were banished 
from the country. If one remained after a fixed day, 
he was to be hanged without mercy. 

A similar fate awaited them a century later in 
France. Under the Capet dynasty they were all ban- 
ished, and every debt due them was declared null and 
void. Subsequently they re-entered France, and were 


54 CREDO. 


a second time expelled, though they could command 
by deed and mortgage one half the wealth of Paris. 

Under Philip the Fair, in 1300, their synagogues 
were converted into churches, and their gravestones 
dug up to furnish building materials for the city. In 
1394, they were for the third time expelled from the 
kingdom. 

Thus, by repeated persecutions and banishments, 
France and England were purified, as it was deemed, 
from the infections of the Jewish race and infidelity. 
But Spain still remained their asylum. The Jews of 
that country had become far nobler in rank than those 
of Germany, England, or France. They were the 
most enlightened and influential class in Spain. Else- 
where they had been reduced to sordid occupations 
and debasing means of extorting riches as best they 
could; but in Spain they were cultivators of the soil, 
ministers of finances, judges in supreme courts, and 
stood at the head of educational, commercial, and po- 
litical affairs. 

Their golden age, in that country, remained bright 
and resplendent for centuries. A Jewish writer thus 
speaks of Spain and the condition of the Jews in it 
during their persecutions elsewhere: ‘‘ Spain might 
be looked on as our happy land and earthly paradise. 
Party madness has not disturbed our sweet domestic 
peace. Every one can worship God in his own man- 
ner, without, on that account, being hated or despised. 
Even Israel, the oppressed and persecuted people 
elsewhere find in happy Spain a haven of freedom, 
and here can sing thanksgiving to the mighty God of 
Israel, who has given his people a rest so long un. 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 55 


known.” But, at length, the same spirit that had 
swept over the continent, over England and France, 
fell upon Spain — the more fatal from its long delay. 
Ferdinand and Isabella determined that the air of 
their prosperous domains should no longer be breathed 
by any one who did not profess the Catholic faith. 
Their fatal edict commanding all unbaptized Jews to 
abandon the kingdom was published in 1492. Thus 
the most industrious and successful population that 
Spain ever knew —under no charge of recent con- 
spiracy, on account of no disloyal demeanor — were 
driven from their homes. The formal charges brought 
against them were centuries old. Four months only 
were allowed them to depart. If found on Spanish 
shores after that time, inevitable death was the penalty. 

The number of exiles is variously estimated, the 
highest figures reaching eight hundred thousand. 
They left this country of their fathers, which had 
been fertilized by their labor, enriched with their 
wealth, and adorned with their learning. They left 
their synagogues, their schools, the sacred tombs of 
their ancestors, and the newly-excavated graves of 
their friends and kindred. With a resolute spirit 
of devotion, which challenges our admiration, they 
resolved to relinquish everything rather than desert 
their ancient religion. They were wanderers, with 
no hospitable shore on the face of the globe to wel- 
come them. It makes one’s blood run cold to read 
their fate after this expulsion from Spain. They 
were enslaved; they were killed and torn open by 
the Turks, who believed that they had swallowed 
their gold on their departure from Spain; some were 


56 CREDO. 


landed on desolate islands, there to perish; others 
were drowned in the sea; some reached the coast of 
Genoa, bearing with them famine and plague; while 
others found their way to lonely places in Asia and 
Africa. A few were admitted into Rome, but were 
afterwards treated with such severe inhospitality, that 
they were compelled to sell their children for bread. 
In different places they were bonded, bequeathed, 
pawned, bought and sold, plundered and murdered. 
What a catalogue of misfortunes to be meted out 
to one people! Can history show another such rec- 
ord? Arabia, England, France, and Spain, with the 
hills of all Europe and plains of all Asia, stained 
with Jewish blood, and echoing with Jewish groans, 
indicate what no other people could bear and live. 
Every heart must yield a response to the beautiful 
song of one who could appreciate their condition. 


‘*O, weep for those that wept by Babel’s stream, 
Whose shrines are desolate, whose land a dream; 
Weep for the harp of Judah’s broken shell; 
Mourn — where their God hath dwelt the godless dwell. 


‘Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast, 
How shall ye flee away and be at rest? 
The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, 
Mankind their country — Israel but the grave!” 


‘And there shall be great tribulation, such as was 
not from the beginning of the world to this time; no, 
nor ever shall be. Behold, I have told you before.” 
(Matt. xxiv. 21, 25.) We pause at this point for a 
moment, to fix the exact relation of prophecy to the 
misfortunes we have recounted. The relation was 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 57 


not arbitrary. The punishments were inflicted in 
consequence of the violation of law, and not for the 
purpose of fulfilling prophecy. These events, being 
foreknown supernaturally, were foretold that we 
might believe. God did not command Ferdinand 
and Isabella to banish the Jews, though he knew 
they would do it. He did not hold Spain guiltless 
for the act, but has shrouded her prosperity from that 
day to this. Jewish history presents not an instance 
of the punishment of the sins of the fathers visited 
upon the children of successive generations, but of 
each generation bearing the punishment of its own 
sin. The Jews, since the Christian era, have been 
committing a definite sin (and the blackest sin possi- 
ble when committed under the revelations of the Holy 
Ghost) — the avowed rejection of Christ. When the 
Jews stood amid the scenes of the crucifixion, shout- 
ing, ‘‘ His blood be upon us and our children!” they 
uttered a terrible imprecation. They were almost 
guilty of a second apostasy. The same infatuated 
cry has broken from the lips of every Jew, in every 
age. Until those lips are closed, their disgrace and 
punishment will continue. There will be years of 
respite, but years of proscription will follow. The 
present is a golden age in Jewish history; but it 
will end—end either in their renewed persecutions 
or their conversion to Christ. 

The Lord hath spoken concerning it. Such an 
avowed rejection of Christ cannot long be passed 
in silence. The day they shall look upon Him whom 
they have pierced, and mourn, that day shall witness 
an end of their sufferings and dispersion. 


58 CREDO. 


But again: Have the Jews, as predicted, been in 
a peculiar sense a wandering people? Have they, as 
foretold by Ezekiel, been “scattered into all the 
winds”? (Ezek. xvii. 21.) Have they been ‘ wan- 
derers among the nations,” as predicted by Hosea? 
(Hos. ix. 17) —a prediction which has been reiterated 
by major and minor, Old and New Testament prophets. 
Their history is so well known in this respect, that we 
hardly need pause to answer. ‘Take up a volume of 
the history of any country, at any age since the fall 
of Jerusalem, and this strange figure encounters you. 
You find the Jews there just as we now find them — 
dwelling in the seclusion of their own communities. 
When Denham and Clapperton, the first travellers 
who ventured across the great Sahara, reached the 
banks of Lake Tchad, there they found that the 
‘* Wandering Jew” had preceded them. When the 
Portuguese settled in the Indian Peninsula, and when 
the English took possession of Aden, in South Arabia, 
they found the Jews were there before them. The 
missionary Gobat found them on the elevated plains 
of Abyssinia; and the European traveller, in his dis- 
tant and dangerous migrations, always hears of their 
existence in places which are beyond his reach. As 
it has been in the past, so is it in the present. ‘ The 
restless feet” of this ancient people of God are press- 
ing every inhabitable region of the world. They are 
met in every port, in every city, in every mart of busi- 
ness, in every climate, among people of every language, 
from the freezing snows of Siberia to the burning 
sands of Sahara. From Morocco to Lisbon, from 
Japan to Britain, from Borneo to Archangel, from 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 59 


Hindostan to Honduras, no other inhabitant of the 
earth is so well known as the Jew. He is found 
everywhere, but everywhere felt to be, not a traveller, 
but a stranger. He bears about with him continually 
the unmistakable image and reflection of Hebrew 
prophecy. What is more remarkable is this: Amid 
all their sufferings and wanderings, in harmony with 
prophecy, they have remained a distinct and peculiar 
people. With neither a country nor a nation that 
could be called their own, they have uniformly pre- 
served a distinct nationality. A rapid glance at his- 
tory will show us that such a condition has fallen to 
the lot of no people excepting the descendants of 
Israel. Though they have looked upon the mightiest 
revolutions among the Gentiles; though they have 
been moving among extensive migrations, from east 
to west, and from north to south; though they have 
been dwellers in different empires while in their as- 
cendant, supremacy, and decline; though we have 
seen them passing through all those political and 
civil convulsions which have destroyed every nation 
around Judea, except the Persians alone, who re- 
stored them from their Babylonish captivity, — yet, for 
eighteen centuries they have remained, in all essen- 
tial features, the same. The learned Egyptians, the 
warlike Assyrians, the ancient Babylonians, and the 
proud Romans, who have formed some of the most 
powerful monarchies of earth, cannot now point to 
a single living representative. But these Jews, of 
still greater antiquity, who have been among and a 
part of the most distinctive changes, are numbered 
by millions. Though they have been oppressed, van- 


60 CREDO. 


quished, and enslaved, yet, like the ‘‘ Wandering Jew” 
of the legend, they have been the ordained witnesses 
and survivors of all the revolutions of ages. It is true 
that ukase and edict have compelled them at one time 
to adopt peculiar clothing, at another the dress of the 
common people; that different observances have been, 
from time to time, forced upon them; but it is also 
true that these avowed enemies of Jesus of Nazareth 
have remained Yews. Emperors and kings have 
learned that, while they may make slaves or noblemen 
of them, they cannot transform them into Russians or 
Europeans. They have been isolated in their nation- 
ality as by divine command. 

They maintain the same laws, and number about 
twice as many, as when Moses led them out from the 
land of Egypt. They have continued to preserve their 
own and their old identity. Living in the present, 
they are a prophetic thing of the past. All who have 
read their history, and have had acquaintance with 
them, know that they possess to-day nearly the same 
spirit of national pride and boasted superiority as when 
David occupied the throne of Israel. 

Into the meanest streets of Europe, Asia, or Amer- 
ica, the beggarly-looking Jewish hawker carries with 
him the conviction that he is a representative of the 
nation chosen to stand at the head of the world. 
Whatever his losses, the dream of past and future 
glory never deserts him. Point to his meanness, and 
his pride will instantly raise him above your contempt. 
Though banished from the world, he is haughty as a 
Roman. He continually throws back the sentence of 
banishment when passed, and retreats under the lofty 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 61 


conviction that his race is not excluded as unworthy, 
but merely kept apart as sacred. He owns it is hu- 
miliated, but claims that it is hallowed and reserved 
for the sure, though tardy, fulfilment of God’s prophe- 
cies. ‘‘ The fear of man” is constantly before his eyes. 
The same timid, cautious watchfulness is stamped 
upon each. Every one is a Shylock of Venice or an 
Isaac of York. Their conduct up to nearly the pres- 
ent year has been such as to inspire that hate against 
them which resulted in their persecutions centuries 
ago. The instincts of the world have been to pass 
them by, unless some selfish advantage could be 
gained. 

Until but recently, the companionship of an emi- 
grant fresh from the peat bogs of Ireland, and the 
presence of an ebony slave from the Sea Islands of 
the South, would have been less objectionable than 
Jewish associations, though rich, intelligent, and pow- 
erful. However much we desired their spiritual 
weal, we could not help hating that sullen pride, that 
expression of ruined greatness, which in their person 
everywhere met our eyes. That thirst to extort from 
us, because we are ‘‘ Gentile dogs,” the pound sterling, 
or the ‘* pound of flesh,” though nearest the heart, be- 
speak their continued intolerance, and the source of 
the excessive dislike we have borne them. 

They retain their ancient looks, as well as character. 
Meet almost any one of these mysterious strangers in 
the crowded streets of London, in a Parisian square, 
on the Rialto of Venice, in one of the quarters of the 
_ Eternal City, on the sun-burnt coasts of Africa, amid 
the trafic of New York, or in the romantic gold_re- 


62 CREDO. 


gions of California, you would know him. There is 
no mistaking that peculiar countenance, which bears 
the lineaments of the descendants of Abraham, as 
reflected from the exhumed slabs of Nineveh. His 
receding forehead, his full eye and quick glance, pro- 
claim his lineage as unmistakably as if we saw him 
weeping over the ruins of his beloved but fallen Jeru- 
salem. 

Is there nothing in all this. to arrest our atten- 
tion? The continued existence of this people; the 
wandering and wondering suspense with which they 
move among us while awaiting the consummation of 
their history ; their non-coalescence, though mingling 
with all the nations on earth for sixty generations, and 
each event of their history set forth in so many prophe- 
cies; the recent change in their conduct, and in the 
sentiments of the world towards them, — have all these 
things no meaning or cause? Yes; chance. What a 
marvellous God, then, is Chance! Let us fall down 
and worship him. 

A discussion of the Jewish people and prophecy 
cannot pass a certain question in silence which is fre- 
quently asked: W2ll the Fews return to Palestine? 

The climate and soil of Palestine have been fre- 
quently misrepresented in books of travel. Many trav- 
ellers are ‘‘ kighwaymen” rather than explorers. Let 
us quote from some of the more accurate observers. 
** Palestine,” says Volney, ‘unites different climates 
under the same sky; and, with its numerous advan- 
tages of soil and climate, it is not surprising that the 
Greeks and Romans ranked it among the most beau- 
tiful of their provinces. The land in the plains is fat 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 63 


and loamy, and exhibits every sign of the greatest 
fecundity ; and, were nature assisted by art, the fruits 
of the most distant countries might be produced within 
the distance of twenty leagues.” ‘* Galilee,” says 
Malte Brun, ‘“‘ would be a Paradise, were it inhab- 
ited by an industrious people, and ruled by a benefi- 
cent government. Vine-stocks are to be seen here a 
foot and a half in diameter.” Gibbon also speaks re- 
specting both the climate and soil of these regions in 
the highest terms. ‘‘ Under a good government,” says 
Dr. Clarke, ‘the produce of the Holy Land would 
exceed all calculation. Its perennial harvests, the 
salubrity of its climate, its matchless plains, hills, and 
vales, prove it to be a garden of the Lord.” ‘* Pales- 
tine,” says Isaac Taylor, ‘in the age of its wealth, 
was a samplar of the world; it was a museum count- 
ing many lands in one; the tread of the camel, in two 
or three hours, may now give the traveller a recollec- 
tion of his own home, come whence he may, from any 
country between the torrid zone and our northern lati- 
tudes. Every spring its hill-sides are gay with the 
embroidery of flowers —the resplendent crocus, the 
scented hyacinth, the anemone, the narcissus, the daffo- 
dil, the florid poppy, and the ranunculus, the tulip, 
the lily, and the rose. These jewels of the spring 
morning, these children of the dew, bedded in divans 
of sweet thyme, invite millions of bees, and the most 
showy of the insect orders: flowers, perfumes, but- 
terflies, birds of song, — all things humble and beauti- 
ful here flourish, and are safe ; for man seldom intrudes 
upon this smiling wilderness.” 

Moses predicted that the soil should rest from culti- 


64 CREDO. 


vation while the Jews dwelt in the land of strangers. 
(Lev. xxvi. 33-45.) The eagle eye of prophecy con- 
tinues to watch it closely. Its native countryman is 
to-day obliged to sow its fields, musket in hand. The 
prophet declared that ‘‘ the substance should remain 
in the soil.” There it is stored, as for future use. 
There exists a feeling of secret sympathy between this 
country and its exiled people. The very earth seems to 
feel that its true children are absent, and will come home 
again. That land stubbornly refuses to yield to other 
possessors the rich harvests which lie concealed 
within its bosom. But what of all this? Nothing, 
replies the sceptic. | 
The Jews are rich. ‘Rich as a Jew” has passed 
into a proverb. Generally speaking, they are the 
bankers, the brokers, the merchants, and the traders 
of all countries ; but, since their expulsion from Spain, 
the agriculturists of none. It has been remarked that 
the gold of all Europe is so much in their hands that 
they can make a monetary crisis at pleasure. The 
passion of the most orthodox Jews is to put themselves 
in position to turn, at short notice, all their possessions 
into ready money and movables, as if they ever had 
their eyes upon the words of Isaiah — “ to bring their 
sons from far, their silver and gold with them.” No 
seats in parliaments, or cabinets, or chairs of learning, 
no political ties to thrones or republics, no lapse of 
time, no witchery of music or song, can soothe, or lull 
to rest, certain inherited desires, or inspire within them 
love for any country but their own. Their deposits 
of silver and gold, which stretch their commercial and 
golden links across land and sea over almost the entire 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. ; ole 


circle of Gentile rule, gravitate nowhere else with 
such an irresistible tendency, if not destiny, as to- 
wards the Promised Land. Thither the people look 
and thither they long to turn their weary footsteps. 
They have, in every age, clung with fondest love and 
devotion to the thoughts of their father-land. Heathens, 
Christians, and Mohammedans have alternately pos- 
sessed Judea; the Saracens have preyed upon it, and 
the descendants of Ishmael have repeatedly overrun 
it; the children of Israel have alone been denied the 
right to occupy it, though their hearts have ever been 
on fire for its possession. 

When the crusaders were seized with a temporary 
fever to conquer the Holy Land, in order that they 
might become masters of the sepulchre of the crucified 
Saviour, the Jews everywhere beheld their preparations 
“with dismay. They felt, in every instinct of their soul, 
that that land was their own, and that no other race, or 
nation, or religion on the globe had any right whatever 
to make such a crusade, or rebuild its tombs. 

When Julian issued his edict for rebuilding the tem- 
ple and for the restoration of the Jewish worship to its 
original splendor, Milman represents that the whole 
Jewish world was in commotion. 

The following, in substance, is his account: The 
Jews felt that their time and day of deliverance had 
come. They called Julian their Messiah. They came 
from the most distant places to be present and assist 
at the great national work. ‘Those who were unable 
to come envied their more fortunate brothers as they 
set out upon their glorious pilgrimage, and waited in 
anxious hope for the first intelligence that they could 


5 


66 CREDO. 


again send their offerings, or make, their journey, to 
the temple of the God of Abraham in his holy place. 
Their wealth was poured forth in lavish profusion. 
All who were near the spot, and could not contribute 
so amply, offered their personal exertions. Blessed 
were the hands that toiled in such a work. Un- 
worthy the blood of Israel was he who did not un- 
lock, at such a call, his most secret and sacred hoards. 
Men cheerfully surrendered the hard-won treasures 
of their avarice; women offered up their jewelled or- 
naments; the very tools to be employed were thought 
to be sanctified by the service. They were made, in 
some cases, of the most costly metals. Some had 
shovels and baskets of silver. Women were seen Car- 
rying materials in robes of velvet and mantles of silk. 
Men blind from birth groped among the ruins to lend 
their embarrassing aid; the aged tottered along the 
way bowed beneath the weight of a burden such as 
they had not carried since the days of their vigorous 
manhood. The confidence and triumph of the Jews 
were unbounded. The Christian world looked on in 
amazement, and wondered if the murderers of the Son 
of God would actually be permitted to rebuild their 
ancient city, and raise their temple again from “ the 
abomination of desolation ” while they rejected Christ. 

Materials accumulated from all quarters; the work 
commenced. They had dug down to a considerable 
depth, and were preparing to lay the foundations, 
when suddenly flames of fire came bursting from the 
centre of the hill with terrific explosions. The af- 
frighted workmen fled on all sides. The project dear 
to every Jewish heart was abandoned, The occur- 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 67 


rence may have been natural or supernatural; we 
think it natural: the Jews thought otherwise. It 
matters not. In consequence of it, and in the sudden 
death of the remarkable man and apostate, Julian, who 
led the enterprise, the Christian world thought it saw 
the vengeance of God, and the Jewish world saw the 
extinction of the long and fondly-cherished hopes of 
a speedy return to Jerusalem. 

Notwithstanding this signal defeat of their plans, Je- 
rusalem has never been forgotten. To-day they are 
alert to catch any word that comes from the land of 
their fathers. Though they have spoken every dia- 
lect, wandered on the banks of every river and sea, 
their attachment for the sacred soil is undiminished. 
Their patriotism is the same as when they were in 
Babylonish bondage, and their earnestness the same as 
when they set about rebuilding the temple. Their 
reverence for the ancient metropolis is stronger than 
the most ardent patriotism on record. Cheerfully 
they make long and weary pilgrimages to lay their 
hand upon some relic of its past glory, or to weep 
over the tombs of their ancestors. Let but the lead- 
ing Jews in different countries announce the intention 
of purchasing Jerusalem, or of returning to the land 
of Palestine, and the thought would fire the race with 
an enthusiasm that would astonish the world. There, 
they feel, is their home. Nowhere else on earth can 
the ordinances of their religion be celebrated. Does 
not this unquenchable thirst, this undying ardor, point 
to the inevitable fulfilment of prophecy? What think- 
ing man is not compelled to acknowledge that it is 
now morally certain that the waste places of Judea 


68 CREDO. 


shall again blossom as the rose? Do not the natural 
and the supernatural unite in a common horizon, near 
which is seen this peculiar people going back to the 
Promised Land, from their long Gentile dispersion, 
as they went back from their Egyptian and Babylo- 
nian captivity? Can they much longer reject Christ? 
Can we not almost hear the touching and poetic ex- 
hortation of Isaiah, ‘* Ye can speak comfortably to 
Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is ac- 
complished, that her iniquity is pardoned’? (Is. xl. 2.) 
Then shall they come with rejoicing, and it shall be 
their last return and their final restoration. 

“The king of France complacently announced to 
the French Chambers on the 4th day of December, 
1841, that he had concluded a connection with the 
King of Prussia and the Queen of England for the con- 
solidation and repose of the Ottoman empire. The 
repose of a part of it will, beyond question, be secured, 
but not, however, by human, connections.” * When 
that consolidated repose does take place, it will be 
sweet and lasting. When that day comes, it will come 
to all—to Jew and Gentile alike. The millennium is 
only another name for the consummation of the spirit- 
ual blessings promised to Abraham and reaflirmed by 
the Messiah. 

The world is moving rapidly towards thrilling 
events. The Jews, as a body, are on the verge of ac- 
knowledging that Jesus was the Messiah. The great 
obstacle is, that they fear one another, and their eccle- 
siastical rulers. Let Christ be acknowledged in a civil 


a . * Stanley. 


- 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 69 


capacity by them, and evangelical Christianity will 
have made its sublimest conquest. The Jews cannot 
become Roman Catholics, for they can never worship 
the virgin Mary ; they cannot become radical Unita- 
rians, for their Christ will be divine. They can be- 
come, and will become, the soundest evangelical Trin- 
itarians on earth. What a foreign missionary society 
they could organize! Hereditary zeal, immense 
wealth, and a familiarity with every tongue on the 
globe, give them advantages over all other nationali- 
ties in the evangelization of the world. The morning 
dawns! 

In wandering through this wonderful field of his- 
tory, imposing as the truth of God and strange as the 
most stupendous miracle, we may for a moment have 
seemed to lose sight of the main question at issue — 
that of prophetic inspiration and a supernatural book. 
It is in appearance only. The return is natural and 
easy. The philosophical Hume asserted that “a 
wise man should proportion his belief to the evidence.” 
Grant it. Do these things constitute a chapter of acci- 
dents? Are they the “ fortuitous concurrence of inci- 
dents”? Could arms, genius, climate, politics, na- 
tionality, or religion have suggested those far-off scenes 
of suffering, depression, and preservation of the Jewish 
people? 

Silent all as the hammers that reared their sublime 
temple. We have D. D.’s among us without number, 
and many of them without merit. We have M. D.’s, 
and LL. D,’s. Can any of them predict minutely, and 
without qualification or alternative, the fate of an exist- 
ing city or nation two thousand years hence—a fate 


70 CREDO. 


which shall be entirely dependent upon the sins or vir- 
tues of the people? All sane men feel that such things 
are dark as death to mortal ken. These Hebrew 
prophets have given us, however, fact upon fact and 
prophecy upon prophecy, extending through many 
generations, involving the most complicated and hair- 
breadth predictions, as well as those of more general 
application. They have been fulfilled to the letter, 
by responsible and absolutely free agents. Let the 
wise man proportion his belief to the evidence. Will 
he longer reject the sacred volume? 


ser 


* 
fh as 


a ® 


atlas Ws 
a, , 


-< 


“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake 
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed 
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” H/e- 
brews i. I, 2. 


**T saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son 
of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the An- 
cient of days, and they brought him near before him. And 
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his 
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass 
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” 
Daniel vii. 13, 14. 


“‘And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great 
voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are be- 
come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he 
shall reign forever and ever.” Revelation xi. 1 = 


“And John, calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them 
to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we 
for another? When the men were come unto him, they said, 
John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he 
that should come? or look we for another? And in that same 
hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of 
evil spirits, and unto many that were blind he gave sight. 
Then Jesus, answering, said unto them, Go your way, and tell 
John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind 
see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the 
dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. Luke vii. 
19-22. 

**O, who shall paint Him? Let the sweetest tone 

That ever trembled on the harps of heaven 

Be discord; let the chanting seraphim, 

Whose anthem is eternity, be dumb; 

For praise and wonder, adoration, all 

Melt into muteness, ere they soar to thee, 

Thou sole perfection! theme of countless worlds!” 
ROBERT MonrTGoMERY. 

(72) 


III. 


PROPHECIES 


RESPECTING CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 


ie is the tendency of mankind to dwell upon the 

glories of antiquity. It finds an iron age in the pres- 
ent, but a golden one in the past. We throw the wreath 
of distinction about the head of some sage, hero, or 
king who has already appeared. No heroes are con- 
cealed in the future. The Jewish nationality forms a 
complete exception to this general rule. The entire 
Hebrew commonwealth was established upon a most 
vivid view of the future. In its days of greatest power 
and splendor, under the reigns of David and Solomon, 
future events furnished its inspiring themes. We need 
express no surprise, much less refer the cause to cli- 
mate, laws, or national peculiarities. The reiterated 
promises of the prophets respecting a coming King, 
and the establishment of his empire over the whole 
world, are explanatory. | This great and thrilling 
thought had been the burden of nearly every prophecy. 
We hear it in the communications of God to the fallen 


race in Genesis. We hear it in the thundering of the 
(73) 


74 CREDO. 


final judgments of Malachi. Though the prophetic 
books were composed in the centre of Asia, amid the 
sands of Arabia, in the deserts of Judea, in the four 
courts of the temple of the Jews, in the rustic schools 
of the prophets of Bethel and Jericho, in the stately 
palaces of Babylon, and wherever else the nation wan- 
dered, — though their composition extended from the 
time that Moses held his pen in the wilderness, four 
hundred years before the war of Troy, and nine hun- 
dred before the publication of the writings of Thales 
and Confucius, down to the last page of Jewish inspira- 
tion, — the writers never varied the theme of their dis- 
course. They never lost sight of that bright, rising, 
glorious star of the future, which symbolized a king- 
dom suited to the weary and disappointed hearts of 
men. Remove the thought of Christ and his work from 
the Bible, and its sublimest prophecies lose their charm. 
Recognize Christ, and not only every prophecy, but 
every type and figure, every promise and word of com- 
fort to nations and individuals, is lit up as with sun- 
light. All their united and concentrated rays of 
light point calmly and steadily to Bethlehem. Every 
thing else is eclipsed. The Jewish golden age is not 
Adam’s abode in Eden, not the period of patriarchal 
rule, but the kingdom of the Messiah. 

The date of the earthly appearance of Christ 
claims our attention. There was a time, above every 
other in Jewish history, when the people were aroused 
with unusual excitement and expectation. Multitudes 
who had been residents in distant parts of the world 
now took up their abode in or near their great metrop- 
olis. Every startling event was noted. As soon as 


ee a 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 75 


the voice of the Baptist was heard, the people flocked 
to the banks of the Jordan. Publican and Pharisee 
received his preliminary baptism. They were not 
filled with idle curiosity, but they believed those were 
the days of the promised Messiah. The whole East- 
ern world was alert with eye and ear. It was believed 
at Rome, while Pompey held Jerusalem, that Judea, 
or, according to Suetonius, that nature, was to bring 
forth a king. The senate decreed that no child born 
during the year of the conquest should be permitted 
to live. Every family in Rome thought it saw in its 
own child the universal monarch. The decree could 
not be enforced. There was no doubt in the Jewish . 
mind that the time of Herod and Pilate would witness 
the advent of the One of whom all the prophets 
had spoken. Let us examine the ground of this expec- 
tation. Beginning with the patriarchal age we find 
that the last blessing of Jacob to his sons contains the 
following prediction: ‘The sceptre shall not depart 
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, 
until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering 
of the people be.” (Gen. xlix. 10.) We read also in 
Malachi the following prediction: ‘Behold, I will 
send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way 
before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall sud- 
denly come to his temple, even the messenger of 
the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall 
come, saith the Lord of Hosts.” (Mal. iii. 1.) The 
prophet Daniel is still more definite, and seems to 
depart from the general rule laid down, that God 
holds the times and seasons of events in his own 
councils, The importance of the event may have re- 


76 CREDO. 


quired this singular departure. ‘Seventy weeks are 
determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, 
to finish the transgression, and to make an end of 
sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to 
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the 
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 
Know therefore and understand, that from the going 
forth of the commandment to restore and to build 
Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be 
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street 
shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous 
times. And after threescore and two weeks shall 
Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the peo- 
ple of the prince that shall come shall destroy the 
city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be 
with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations 
are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant 
with many for one week: and in the midst of the 
week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to 
cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he 
shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, 
and that determined shall be poured upon the deso- 
late.” (Dan. ix. 24-27.). It was a common practice 
among the jews to compute time by weeks of 
years. In this particular instance the Jews would 
have misunderstood Daniel, had he meant ordinary 
weeks. Uniting these different prophecies and facts, 
we can approximately fix upon the time at which the 
Messiah must appear, in order to fulfil the prophecies. 
The limits are these: He must come, according to the 
first prediction, before the national offerings and sacri- 
fices of the Jews should finally cease, — before their 


SUPERNATURAL BOOK. i 


theocracy should fall in all its departments into neglect 
and disuse, — before the sceptre should be smitten from 
Judah’s hand, the crown fall from his head, the law- 
giver depart from between his feet, and before the 
house of David should be found to possess no descend- 
ant to maintain its name and authority. He must 
make his first public appearance, being, at least, 
twelve years of age (the age at which a Jewish child 
became ‘a child of the law”), before Archelaus, the 
Jewish king, should be dethroned and banished. 

According to the prediction from Malachi, he must 
come while the temple of the Jews was yet standing ; 
and the public work of his life could not commence 
until the prophetic silence which had _ succeeded 
Malachi, should be broken by the voice of one like 
Elias. 

According to the prophecy of Daniel, he must ap- 
pear four hundred and eighty-three years after the 
command of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem, or after 
Ezra went up from Babylon to Jerusalem bearing a 
commission to restore the government to the Jews. 
Let the eye scan the horizon. Does one appear within 
the prescribed limits who answers our expectations? 
Is not the Kingdom of Jesus Christ subduing all 
others? ‘*When therefore the angel’says to Daniel, 
‘Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people,’ 
&c., was this written after the event? Or can it 
reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from the sev- 
enth year of Artaxerxes the king (when Ezra went 
up from Babylon unto Jerusalem with a commission 
to restore the government of the Jews) to the death 
of Christ (from ann. Nabon. 290 to ann. Nabon. 


48 CREDO. 


780) should be precisely 490 (seventy -weeks of) 
years? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, 
that from the twenty-eighth year of Ataxerxes, when 
the walls of Jerusalem were finished, to the birth of 
Christ (from ann. Nabon. 311 to 745), should be 
precisely 434 (sixty-two weeks of) years? When 
Daniel further says, ‘ And he shall confirm (or, never- 
theless he shall confirm) the covenant with many for 
one week,’ was this written after the event? Or can 
it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that, from the 
death of Christ (ann. Dom. 33) to the command 
given first to Peter to preach to Cornelius and the 
Gentiles (ann. Dom. 40), should be exactly seven 
(one week of) years?” * 

The coincidences multiply upon examination, until 
they are overwhelming. That Being, whoge name 
has become the inspiring watchword of all nations, 
did not commence his public ministry until after the 
warning voice of John the Baptist had been heard in 
the wilderness. He made his first public appearance 
in the temple of the Jews, and confounded the learned 
doctors of the nation, when twelve years of age — on 
the very year that the Jewish king Archelaus was 
banished. Coponius was then appointed procurator, 
and the kingdom of Judea, the last remnant of the 
greatness of Israel, was debased into a wart of the 
province of Syria. 

Devout Jews throughout the world acknowledge 
that the Messiah ought to have followed John the 
Baptist. 


* Inquiries of Dr. Samuel Clarke, suggested by Sir Isaac 
Newton. 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 7 9 


A distinguished modern Jew has remarked, that if 
he thought Jesus of Nazaréth were the Messiah, he 
should kill himself by shouting his praises. Coinci- 
dences so overwhelming cannot be ignored. They 
demand the world’s investigation. 

But other prophecies relating to the place and 
family line in which Christ should appear arrest 
our attention. We read in Genesis that an angel of 
the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven, and 
said, ‘* By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for 
because thou hast done this thing, and hast not with- 
held thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will 
bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed 
as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is 
upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the 
gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the 
nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast 
obeyed my voice.” (Gen. xxii. 16-18.) 

Moses, of the second order of prophets, thus speaks 
to the children of Israel: ‘* The Lord thy God will 
raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, 
of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall 
hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the 
Lord thy God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, 
saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord 
my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, 
that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They 
have well spoken that which they have spoken. I 
will raise them up a Prophet from among their breth- 
ren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his 
mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall 
command him. And it shall come to pass, that who- 


So CREDO. 


soever will not hearken unto my words, which he 
shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” 
(Deut. xviii. 15-19.) Isaiah, speaking of the age of 
the Messiah, says, ‘‘ And in that day there shall be a 
root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the 
people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest 
shall be glorious.” (Isaiah xi. 10.) Micah, speak- 
ing of the place of his birth, says, ‘‘ But thou, Beth- 
lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the 
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come 
forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose 
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” 
(Micah v. 2.) After the visit of the Magi of the East 
to Jerusalem, in the days of Herod, we read that, 
‘‘'When Herod the king had heard these things, he 
was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when 
he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the 
people together, he demanded of them where Christ 
should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethle- 
hem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not 
the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee 
shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people 
Israel.” (Matt. ii. 2-6.) 

Gathering up these various prophecies, we discover 
that, in order to secure their fulfilment, the predicted 
One must come, not from the ancient Babylonian or 
Assyrian empire, not from classical Greece, or impe- 
rial Rome, where the world would have looked for 
him, but he must be an Israelite, of the tribe of Judah, 
of the family line of David, and from the town of 
Bethlehem. The spot of his birth must not be near, 


> 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. - S1 


but remote from, the scenes of his childhood. The 
place where he begins his ministry is not to be the 
place of his birth, but elsewhere. He must come from 
Egypt, but be called a Nazarene. On all these points 
the prophets leave no alternative. Violence in exposi- 
tion is the only escape. Our thoughts are fastened to 
the hills of Bethlehem, and to the family line of Da- 
vid, as inevitably as the north fastens and holds to itself 
the needle. 

The predicted character of the Messiah must not 
be overlooked. 

Some of the wisest and best of the ancients had 
represented what they thought embodied the highest 
types of excellence. They had been in possession of 
sublime dreams, which had been excited, perhaps, by 
the voice heard in Eden, and reported through tra- 
dition, or, perhaps, by the words of prophecy which 
had found their way beyond the boundaries of Judea. 
They were but dreams. No one had exemplified 
them. No one was expected to. The best of the 
ancient heathen were trying to steer their barks and 
shape their course towards some ideal, instead of to- 
wards some real personage, who, they believed, would 
come on earth. The nations at large felt that they 
needed something which they did not possess. They 
desired a new order of things —a new king, or a new 
kingdom. The most devoted devotees of every reli- 
gion in the world, before the coming of Jesus, felt, 
and in most cases expressed, a craving for divine 
revelations. . Brahminism, tired of itself, demanded a 
living and divine intelligence, which should hold con- 
verse with men. The Buddhist desired a living and 


6 


§2 CREDO. 


divine intelligence zz man. ‘The old Persian ex- 
pressed his want of an infinite and absolute being, 
called ‘“‘Iilimitable Time.” The Egyptian, weary of 
dead monotony, asked for a living intelligence, a 
witness of the hidden and silent God. The Greek 
was distressed that his mythology did not furnish 
him with an embodiment of fate and power, some- 
thing real and not abstract. The Goth demanded an 
Odin, who could travel from city to city, and heal the 
diseases of the people. The Roman felt he must have 
something more for a God supreme than the one 
visible in the marble statuary of Jupiter at the Cap- 
itol. All the gods of Rome were collected in a single 
temple. They stood there as objects of the mockery 
of humanity, which had become tired and disgusted 
with idols. Then rose from the city a distressed cry, 
which was echoed back from every part of the world, 
for a new and better manifestation of the Deity. 
Mankind took no pleasure in the radiance that had 
been thrown over a distant past. It mourned a de- 
generate present, and looked forward to a dark and 
uncertain future. Thus ended the revelations to the 
heathen world. 

Turn to the obscure Hebrew nationality. Listen to 
the voice of its teachers and prophets. They an- 
nounced that a distinguished personage would arise, 
and accomplish for the world a most extraordinary 
work, and leave to the race a faultless system of moral- 
ity and religion, They announced that his teachings 
should be rejected by the Jews, received by the Gen- 
tiles, and be by them extended in subsequent ages 
throughout the whole world. They predicted that his 


+ ——— ee a ee = 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 83 


reign would diffuse universal happiness, and furnish to 
the race the most perfect conditions of peace and con- 
solation ever enjoyed by mankind. They did not 
merely express dissatisfaction with the national reli- 
gion as then practised ; they did not merely fail to find 
among their countrymen a national leader who was 
faultless in life and character; they did not merely 
give an indifferent account of a future Reformer and 
Saviour; but besides designating the date and place 
of his appearance, and the character of his mission, 
with remarkable uniformity, they laid great stress, first 
and last, upon certain qualities which were to adorn 
him — qualities which, if actually possessed, would 
distinguish their possessor from all others who have 
lived, and make him the most inexplicable personage 
of all times and. of all nations. The Hebrew prophets 
retained in the promised Messiah the most brilliant 
and thrilling hopes, whilst the hopes of all others were 
shrouded in darkness. They declared that his life 
should combine every virtue, and be a model of every 
excellence. Isaiah draws characteristic after charac- 
teristic of this divine personage, until One stands before 
us attractive and marvellous beyond comparison. He 
represents him as divine and human; as God- -begotten. 
and man-born; whose humanity is temporal, whose 
kingdom and nature are eternal. He is said to be 
rich and poor, a master and a slave, a king and a 
subject, a lion and lamb, religious and yet an_ up- 
braider of religion. Sometimes he is named, some- 
times unnamed. Sometimes he is represented as near, 
sometimes as receding into distant ages. Who could 
have believed that such a one would actually come to 


84 CREDO. 


the earth—one whom the fondest and purest desires 
of the whole world find to be ‘all in all”? The 
Hindoo would then find the divine intelligence con- 
versing with men; the Buddhist, the divine intelli-_ 
gence in man; the old Persian, a being properly 
called Illimitable Time; the Egyptian, a witness of 
the silent God; the Greek, the embodiment of fate 
and power; the Roman, something more than the 
marble statuary in the Pantheon; and the Goth, a 
physician travelling from city to city, and healing the 
people of their diseases. The sublimest ideals of the 
most exalted minds, and the noblest aspirations ever 
breathed by the race, or dared to be hoped for, would 
suffer no disappointment at his coming. Listen to the 
blended song of those prophets while contemplating 
the future glory of this Prince and kingdom : — * I be- 
hold him, but not now: I see him, but not nigh. He 
shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the 
river unto the ends of the earth. Break forth into 
singing, and cry aloud. The Lord of Hosts is thy 
name. The Lord of the whole earth shall he be 
called. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
rose.” These prophecies need not be — indeed they 
‘are not — matters of controversy, but simple fact. The 
time, place, character, and mission of the coming One 
are plainly stated. Are the statements confirmed? 
Does history furnish a character which unquestion- 
ably answers the various and apparently contradictory 
conditions imposed by this variety of complicated 
predictions? How naturally and inevitably our eyes 
again turn to Jesus of Nazareth and the hills of Judea! 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 85 


For it is admitted beyond question that the mys- 
terious Being who arose eighteen hundred years ago 
out of the Jewish nation and from the house of David 
possessed a character which stands forth in solemn 
and sublime pre-eminence above all others. By uni- 
versal consent he is the boldest relief on the page of 
history, and as remarkable as the expectation which 
preceded him. There is a general harmony in the 
confessions of Germans and Frenchmen, of Englishmen 
and Americans, of critics and sceptics, as well as of 
theologians and ecclesiastics. Says Byron, in view of 
the faultless life of the Redeemer, “If ever man was 
God, or God man, Jesus Christ was both.” Says 
Rousseau, ‘*Can it be possible that the personage 
whose history the gospel contains should be a mere 
man? What sublimity in his maxims! What pro- 
found wisdom in his discourses! If the life and death 
of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of 
Jesus are those of a God.” Fichte, the noblest repre- 
sentative of recent pantheistic speculation in Ger- 
many, bore Christ the highest testimony it was possi- 
ble for one man to bear another, making him the pro- 
pounder of his philosophy. Goethe, the universal 
genius of modern Germany, speaking of Christ, says, 
“Fle is the Divine Man—the Holy One.” Mr. 
Carlyle ever refers to Christ in terms of profoundest 
reverence, ‘The greatest of all heroes,” he says, ‘is 
One whom we do not name here. Let sacred silence 
meditate that sacred matter.” Said Mr. Parker, in one 
of his most rigid discourses against evangelical reli- 
gion, ‘‘ Try Christ as we try other teachers: how soon 
their pupils, though humble men, go beyond them! 


S6 CREDO. 


Highteen centuries have passed; but what man or sect 
has mastered His thought? He pours out to the world 
a doctrine beautiful as the light, sublime as heaven, 
and true as God.” And then, after arguing for some 
length that, though the Bible itself were destroyed, its 
great precepts would live, he falls into this strain: 
‘But we should lose (O, irreparable loss!) the 
example of that character, so beautiful, so divine, that 
no human genius could have conceived, as none, after 
all the progress and refinement of eighteen centuries, 
seems fully to have comprehended, its lustrous life.” 
Renan, in his Life of Jesus, says, ‘‘ Jesus is without 
equal ; his glory remains complete, and will be revered 
forever. The memory of his life has been like the 
perfume of another world, and all history is incom- 
prehensive without him. . . . Jesus was more than a 
reformer. . . . Between him and God there will no 
longer be any distinction. His sermon on the mount 
is unequalled, and whatever be the surprises of the 
future, Jesus will never be surpassed.” 

How much these men acknowledge! They feel 
and confess that the world at Jesus’ birth dated a new 
epoch, and that the Christian era sprang from no 
myth or fable, but from vital changes in the condition 
of things. These men have caught sight of the out- 
side brilliancy of his coming and adornings. What 
if they had partaken of his divine life! If the blade 
yields such fruit, what of the full corn in the ear! If 
unbelievers laud him to the skies, may he not be 
praised in the house of his friends? Is he not entitled 
to a place above all mankind? Measure his work, 
As the story and influence of his life have reached the 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. © 87 


darkest heathen realms, they have grown instantly 
light under their touch. As ships laden with his 
treasures have landed upon savage shores, the rude 
inhabitants have bent their knees to welcome this Lord 
of Glory. The men of the North Pole have grown 
warm while leaning upon the glowing heart of this 
great and faithful Shepherd. When the Prince of 
Peace has once entered their iceberg homes, they 
have bloomed like the garden of Paradise. The dis- 
tant isles of the sea daily lift up their songs of praise, 
and answer back, that God is in the midst of them. 
The song of church bells, beginning in the far East, 
Sabbath by Sabbath, goes round the world. The 
echo of a great and mysterious Voice is heard, saying, 
“It is done. Amen. And the kingdoms of this world 
are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His 
Christ.” | 
“« O, scenes surpassing fable! 

One song employs all nations, and all cry, 

‘Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!’ 

The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 

Shout to each other, and the mountain-tops 

From distant mountains catch the flying joy ; 

Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 

Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round.” 


When we see the predicted mission of the Messiah 
so faithfully fulfilled, — when we see the great world’s 
history bending itself to the birth of Jesus, in the 
‘* Anno Domini” of its dates and superscriptions, — 
when we see that the world has moved as in deepest 
sympathy with the humble Nazarene, working ever 
in his behalf, — when we behold all events marching 


88 CREDO. 


onwards through the centuries to the beat of time, 
preserving, as Napoleon thought, ‘‘ a celestial order,” 
to accomplish one given result— the universal and 
final ascendency of the Son of David, — when we see 
that all opposing systems can no longer hold compari- 
son with the religion given to the world by him, than 
can the pale, thin, extended crescent ring of the set- 
ting moon hold comparison to the full blaze of the 
unclouded noonday sun, — when we discover that this 
mighty one issued from the house of David before its 
fall, and from Bethlehem in the days of Herod, must 
we not acknowledge that He is the Being whom the 
prophets declared to be one with the Father Almighty? 
As we follow his mysterious footsteps, and take note 
of his humble birth, his mortal lineage, his divine na- 
ture, his heavenly life, his unsullied purity, his i invinci- 
ble courage, and his more than human resolution, — 
as we behold him moving among men, the example 
of the child-like, the companion of publicans, and the 
friend of sinners, — as we witness his chivalric devo- 
tion, the mildness of his conversation, his tears over 
Jerusalem, his forgiveness to enemies, and his pro- 
vision for the world’s redemption, —as we behold 
him calming ,the waves of the sea by a word, and 
restoring to life the dead by a touch, — as we see him 
standing alone among the millions of the race, * the 
only pattern of absolute perfection, whose entire life, 
without inclining a hair’s breadth to either side, point- 
ed straight upward to heaven,” — as we behold him 
breaking completely the monotony of the world, and 
concentrating in himself all the glowing and glorious 
attributes of the King of earth and heaven, —as we 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 89 


behold him lifted on the cross, almost in sight of his 
birthplace, and hear him cry, ‘* It is finished,” — as 
all the separate and wandering rays of prophecy that 
had sparkled through the divine word are combined 
and concentrated, and rest as with a sacred halo on 
his head, how can we do otherwise than spread our 
palms and robes in his pathway, shout over hill and 
valley his hosannas, and proclaim our convictions in 
that prophetic, startling, and sublime word, ‘** Imman- 
uel” !— God with us. Yes, God himself has been 
in the world. Fortunate world! you can ask no 
more. You have seen the brightness Be God’s glory, 
‘“‘and the express image of his person.” In him the 
dreams of wise and good men of all ages are satisfied. 
Whoever has embraced him has found him to be all 
the prophets declared he should be. No man who 
has given him his heart, and taken hold of his hand, 
has been in the least disappointed: he has said, as 
Philip did to Nathanael, ‘‘ We have found him of 
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write — 
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

As intelligent observers, what shall we say to these 
things? Must not the prophets have known of what 
they spoke? Could they have spoken at random? 
Can we possibly explain the prophecies without in- 
troducing a supernatural element? Recall for a mo- 
ment the entire ground passed over. Stand by the 
silent but prophetic graves of Nineveh and Babylon, 
and remember that the cities of China and Japan, of 
almost equal antiquity, remain in undiminished extent 
and with enduring foundations. Visit the great na- 
tional graves of other people, into whose deep abyss 


go CREDO. 


the gigantic forms of predicted empires have fallen, in 
some cases with a sudden crash, in others with the 
lingering death of deserted walls; in some instances 
with conflagration and bloodshed, in others with the 
abandonment of national life and spirit, but in every 
instance in the exact manner prescribed long before- 
hand. Listen to the tragic chorus of these inspired 
seers, as it ‘‘ breaks forth in sublime funereal anthems” 
over the greatness and prosperity of Moab and Am- 
mon, of Damascus and Tyre. Hear the song of uni- 
versal freedom, rising at first in the sad dirge of 
bondmen under the yoke, but afterwards in the thrill- 
ing anthem of the yoke broken and bondmen free. 
Follow the wild Arab, who continues to love his 
desert home, and ever contends in his independent 
warfare against mankind. Observe the Jewish peo- 
ple shattered in pieces like a vessel in a mighty storm, 
and for eighteen centuries the prophetic wreck afloat. 
Stand under the refreshing shadow of the mysterious 
stone cut out of the mountain, but filling the whole 
earth. What! were all these events — concerning any 
one of which an uninspired man would have fluctuated 
in absolute uncertainty — foretold solely through mor- 
-talagency? Impossible! 

Examine the marvellous volume in other respects. 
Is there not discovered upon every page, whenever, 
wherever, and by whomsoever written, the same pro- 
test for truth, justice, and mercy; the same message 
of wrath for the oppressor, the cruel, and the impious ; 
the same righteous care for the widow, the fatherless, 
and the stranger? Are there not, throughout the 
Scriptures, the elements of all true theology, which, 
as a system, “is so entire,” says Taylor, “that after 


EE 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. gt 


ages of painful cogitation on the part of the most 
profound and the most exact minds, — whether phi- 
losophers or divines, whether ancient or modern, — 
nothing that is profitable, nothing that is deep and 
affecting, which has been educed and taught, or is at 
this moment extant and patent, in books classical or 
in books recent, can surpass the glorious truths de- 
clared?” Is not the prophet, if we take him as the 
chief of his own order, after two thousand years, our 
master in the school of the highest reason and truth? 
Do we not inevitably come to the same conclusion as 
that reached by a recent reviewer, that ‘‘ the Bible is 
a unit; it is a Bible, as well as tke Bible — one book 
no less than the ov/y one: a collection of books, and 
yet a single book; the fruit of many pens, yet written 
as if by one alone;” the inseparable expression of 
the prophets, of Christ, of the apostles, and of the 
Holy Ghost? 

Though we disregard the idle ripple of a single 
wave among the pebbles, do we not, when every wave 
moves in the same direction, when the tide is at work 
on all shores and continents, seek a law, and find it in 
the sky? 

Must not the Bible, especially if we exclude the 
supernatural element, be regarded as the most stu- 
pendous miracle ever conceived? 

Should not the believer and the non-believer ex- 
change names and places? Ought the man who can 
believe, with these facts before him, that God did not 
in a special manner inspire his prophets, be known as 
a sceptic? We protest! Huis powers of belief exceed 
those of the believer. 


’ 


‘‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon 


the face of the waters.” Gemeszs i. 1, 2. 


“The grand old book of God will stand, and this old earth, 
the more its leaves are turned over and pondered, the more 
will it sustain and illustrate the Sacred Word.” Pror. Dana. 


“Tt is now thirty-five years since my attention was turned 
to these considerations. It was then the fashion of science, 
and, for a large part of the educated and inquisitive world, to 
rush into a disbelief of all written revelation, and several geo- 
logical speculations were directed against the Bible. But I 
have lived to see the most hostile of these destroyed.” 

SHARON TURNER. 


(92) 


LAY 


THE EARTH AND THE BIBLE. 


STATEMENT of the evidences of a supernat- 
ural book would hardly be complete without 
some allusion to the department of science, as well as 
to that of history. We now compare the statements of 
the Bible with the modern developments of geology. 
In selecting this particular science, we would not con- 
vey the impression that it is a field more interesting 
or convincing than that of astronomy, physical geog- 
raphy, law, philology, archeology, or psychology. 
We examine the science of geology because the great- 
est recent battles between belief and unbelief have 
here been waged, and because the infidel world is still 
active in this branch of science, and apparently confi- 
dent of its ability thereby to overthrow the statements 
of revelation. 

Lhe Mosaic Account of Creation.— The opening 
chapters of Genesis have always been justly celebrat- 
ed for their simplicity and sublimity. Though the 
subject treated is one of unparalleled grandeur, the 


writer makes no effort at rhetorical embellishment. 
(93) 


94 CREDO. 


His language is simple and common, his account 
brief and explicit ; like all such accounts, it gives occa- 
sion for explanation and discussion. ‘‘In the begin- 
ning God created the heaven and the earth.” How 
much that passage involves! It breaks the silence of 
a past eternity ; it points to and embraces all subse- 
quent communications, of every kind, concerning the 
kingdom of nature, and of God’s relation to it. Itisa 
blow at almost every false religion and physical error 
of the world.* It denies Atheism, for it assumes the 
existence, eternity, and omnipotence of God. It de- 
nies Polytheism and Dualism, for it assumes that there 
is but one Creator, and he a being of supreme good- 
ness, who did not suffer a work to pass from his hands 
until he could pronounce it good. It denies Material- 
ism, for it asserts the creation of matter. It denies 
Pantheism, for it assumes the existence of God before 
all things, and separate from them. It denies Fatal- 
ism, for it involves the freedom of the Eternal Being, 
who willed and spoke before matter and objective or- 
der appeared. And it constitutes one of the strong 
pillars that support all Christian theology. ‘‘In the 
beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” 
and “ In the beginning was the Word,” and ‘ without 
him was not anything made that was made,” are the 
morning and evening psalms which echo through 
the universe forever, and which forever unite as in 
one the Old and New Testament dispensations. © 
When Moses uttered this passage, he spoke of that 
which the most thorough acquaintance with every 


* See Murphy’s Commentary on Genesis. 


OE - 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 95 


branch of modern science would fail to disclose. Nat- 
ural science takes cognizance only of things existing 
—not of their beginnings. He spoke not of the uni- 
verse at large, but of the earth, and of man, its ra- 
tional inhabitant and appointed king. 

He assigns no date for the creation. ‘In the be- 
ginning” means not six, nor sixty, nor six hundred 
thousand years ago, but in the beginning of time, 
when the earth was not, and when matter was _ not. 
After a great amount of discussion and investigation, 
men have settled upon one of these two suppositions : 
either that the materials of which the earth is com- 
posed have always existed, or else that God, at a 
given time, and in the deginning of time, created 
them. On this question physical science is silent. 
We are left to revelation and reason. As matter has 
none of the properties of a necessary, and therefore of 
an eternal existence, and as there is not one chance ina 
billion for it to happen to occupy its present limits in 
space, we seem forced to the conclusion that matter 
has not always existed, but was at some indefinitely 
early period created. 

The literal rendering of the second verse is; ‘* And 
the earth had become a waste and a void, and dark- 
ness was upon the face of the roaring deep, and 
the Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the 
waters.” Connecting this passage with the account 
of the creation of the different orders of existing flora 
and fauna, the obvious meaning must be, that after the 
earth had been created, after. it had existed a countless 
number of ages, during which it may have been gov- 
erned by natural laws, may have met with change 


96 CREDO. 


and vicissitude, have laid up in storehouses the geo- 
logical deposits of granite and clay, of coal and oil, of 
salt and lime, of silver and gold, then it became a 
waste. So far as the region first inhabited by man is 
concerned, not a living thing moved on its surface, or 
burrowed in its soil. The earth as a whole was cov- 
ered with roaring waters and thick darkness. Har- 
monizing the date of this condition with biblical and 
secular chronology, the most natural interpretation of 
the passage before us is, that God, about six thousand 
years ago, bade the darkness become light, rolled the 
waters back into the seas, and in six literal days 
clothed the barren waste with the verdure which now 
decks it, and gave to a scene of death, the life that 
now breathes its air and walks its surface. 

Geological Account of Creation.— The materials of 
the earth are so arranged that we can read its history, 
much as we read the published history of secular 
events. There is one leaf above another; one page 
follows another, written, engraved, and illustrated. 
We wish to ascertain whether the account of creation 
given us by the Hebrew prophet agrees with this book 
of earth. Beginning with the foundation, upon which 
the vast structure rests, we find that it is granite and 
the different ingredients of granite. Had not this for- 
mation been washed bare by the action of water, and 
lifted from its deep bed into mountain ranges and 
peaks by the natural agencies at work in the bosom 
of the earth, it would nowhere meet the eye. It would 
be concealed by subsequent formations. Examining 
this underlying rock, we discover no evidences of life 
during its formation. There are no remains of plants 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 97 


or animals of any kind. How long the matter of the 
globe remained after its creation before it took this 
form, even, we cannot tell. How long it remained bare, 
naked granite, we are totally ignorant. It must have 
been age upon age ; for *‘ of old he laid the foundations.” 

The formation next above this is called the Silurian. 
It is the first story of the building above the founda- 
tion—the second page in the world’s history. The 
rocks of this period are, chiefly, the sandstones, slates, 
and limestones. Including the older and newer for- 
mations, they are not less than thirty thousand feet in 
thickness. An examination of this layer will disclose 
fossil plants, and the fossil remains of the four great 
branches of the animal kingdom —the Radiates, typi- 
fied in the star-fish and sun-fish; the Mollusks, in the 
clam and land-snail; the Articulates, represented by 
worms and insects; and the Vertebrates, by fishes, 
birds, and mammals. The fish, however, is the only 
vertebrate which then existed. Search ever so care- 
fully among the ruins of that ancient era, and not the 
bone of a bird nor mammal can be found. What is 
still more remarkable is, that, though we find more 
than a thousand different fossil species, and though 
there are three hundred thousand living species of 
the same classes now in the waters, yet not oe can be 
found among those which at present swim the sea, or 
creep across the earth, that does not differ in its species 
from every one of those that lived, died, and were 
buried in the great Silurian Period. How long it had 
taken these thirty thousand feet to form, how many 
of those ancient inhabitants had lived and died, none 
but God can tell. 


7 


98 CREDO. 


The next page in this wonderful book is called the 
Old Red Sandstone. In the State of New York it is 
fourteen thousand feet thick. In it we find the remains 
of numerous plants, and the four branches of the ani- 
mal kingdom, as in the last; but, though there are a 
thousand different species, though the remains are such 
as to show that the waters of this period must have 
swarmed with life, still it may be safely stated that but 
few, if any, species of animal or plant found in the 
preceding, and that zoe found in the present, age 
existed during the formation of the old red sandstone. 

Next above this formation, we reach the age in 
which the coal we use to warm and light our dwell- 
ings was formed and deposited. It is called the Car- 
boniferous Period. The growth of vegetation in this 
age transcends all calculation. Immense forests sprang 
up as in a day. The exuding sap, i. e., petroleum, 
flowed down into the limestone and iron-cased vats 
or basins, and was there preserved. The undergrowth 
of the forests consisted of at least three hundred dif 
ferent varieties of fern. The atmosphere was charged 
with carbonic acid, loaded with all the mephitic gases, 
with moisture and miasms. This is indicated both 
by the wonderful growth of vegetation, and by por- 
tions of the gaseous atmosphere of that old world, 
which, for our instruction, were caught, and have 
been imprisoned through the ages in the deep coal 
caverns of earth. The sunlight was excluded from 
all those forests. The geologist, the chemist, and the 
botanist tell us they were never touched by an illumina- 
ting sunbeam. More than tropical heat extended to 
the polar regions. These are conditions the most per- 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 99 


fectly adapted for vegetable development, but the most 
fatal to animal life. As we should expect, though the 
limestone and iron which constitute the introduction 
of this period abound in the remains of a great variety 
of land insects and reptiles, not one of any kind or 
class of air-breathing animals or insects can be found 
in the coal formation proper. Nota bird warbled its 
song or built its nest among those mighty forests. Not 
an insect — not so much, even, as a worm —fed upon 
the leaves, or spun its thread from the branches. Says 
Lyell, ‘“‘ In the United States, five million tons of coal 
are annually extracted; and no fossil insect has yet 
been met with in the carboniferous rocks of North 
America. . . . In like manner, no land shell, no 
aquatic mollusk, is recorded to have come from the 
coal of Europe, worked for centuries before America 
was discovered.” 

‘¢ We have ransacked,” he continues, ** hundreds of 
soils, have dug out hundreds of stumps, and carbonif- 
erous trunks and roots; and after all we continue 
almost as much in the dark respecting the invertebrated 
air-breathers of this epoch as if-the coal had been 
thrown down in mid-ocean.” 

But when the supplies had been stored up in vast 
quantities, when the carbon and poisons had been 
taken up from the atmosphere by the development of 
vegetation, to which, indeed, it owed its growth, then 
those ancient forests were suddenly checked in their 
development. Perhaps they withered in a day, under 
some atmospheric or climatic change. Soon after this 
they fell into the abyss of subsequent ages, never to 
rise again with life and beauty. They were sunk he- 


100 CREDO. 


neath the ocean, and stratum after stratum of sand- 
stone and limestone were piled over that forgotten 
vegetation, hiding it for centuries, and pressing it, like 
a modern peat-press, into solid rock. That rock is 
our coal. 

The next deposit above the coal is the New Ked 
Sandstone. In this, as we should expect, the poisons 
of the atmosphere having been absorbed, we again find 
the remains of air-breathing animals. The birds of 
the period especially claim our attention. ‘They were 
found in such abundance that we may term it the Bird 
Epoch. They consisted of at least thirty-five different 
species. They were, in some cases, of enormous size. 
Birds from twelve to fifteen feet in height, whose foot- 
prints are twenty-two inches in length, stalked for thou- 
sands of years along the shores of the Connecticut 
River, from the northern part of Massachusetts to New 
Haven. In New Zealand their bones are found, the 
thigh-bone being larger than that of anox. Fragments 
of their egg-shells, which are found in Madagascar, 
indicate that they were six times larger than any living 
ostrich. They were the giant rulers of the hills and 
vales of earth for centuries ; but, like every other race 
that had preceded them, they at length perished. Not 


a spot can now furnish a solitary living example like: 


them. These extinct species never return. 

The next period is very properly called the Rep- 
tilian Age. Reptiles flourished at this date as vigor- 
ously as plants had in the coal period, and as the birds 
had in the age just preceding. There were at this 
time gigantic reptiles, seventy feet in length, which 
could walk the earth, swim the sea, or fly the air, 


OS 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. Iol 


equally well. Think of a flying lizard sixty feet 


long, and of a frog larger than an ox! ‘Such were 


—) 
once the inhabitants of the earth. More than forty 
species of the lizard have been discovered belonging 
to this period. These monsters might have been seen 
flying through the air, sporting in the fens, devouring 
their prey, or rolling and frolicking in the waters, 
where now is the solid earth of the British Isles. 
But, having lorded it over the earth, sea, and air, 
for an allotted time, they met, at length, a sudden 
and total extinction. They left only their skeletons 
to acquaint us with the facts of their existence and 
nature. ; 

Ages again pass, and new orders appear. They 
constitute what is called the Chalk or Cretaceous for- 
mation. If we could have visited the earth during the 
period of these deposits, we should have found it in- 
habited, century after century, by the minutest shell 
animals, many species of which are imperceptible 
without the aid of the microscope. It may properly 
be called the Shell-insect Age. How unlike the age of 
monster birds and reptiles which preceded! Where 
is the development theory ? * 

But after these little animals had done their work, 
— after their accumulated remains had provided the 


* The leading facts of geology are so utterly at variance 
with the theory of ‘* transmutation of species,” that no addi- 
tional refutation is necessary. 

The more recent scientific inquiries furnish no evidence 
whatever in support of Mr. Darwin’s theory of the ‘ forma- 
tion of species by natural selection.” The Mosaic account of 
creation rests upon an undisturbed basis. 


\ 


102 CREDO. 


Egyptians with the materials for building their pyra- 
mids, — after they had built Northern Europe, Western 
Asia, and Mount Lebanon, — after they had furnished 
our western prairies with their rich and productive 
soils, — after having supplied the world with its 
chalk, its marble, and the different varieties of carbo- 
nate of lime, — then their age and reign ceased. They 
and their work were sunk beneath the seas, and sub- 
sequently buried under other and later formations. 
We now approach comparatively near the earth’s 
surface, and may begin to talk of modern times. 
Above the Cretaceous, lies the last of the Tertiary, or 
the Mammal deposits. Visiting the earth at this stage 
of its construction, we should have entered magnifi- 
cent forests of oak, hickory, and magnolia, whose 
branches were covered with the richest foliage. We 
should have seen the stately palm, decking in clusters 
every hill and valley, while flowering plants and 
shrubs of every hue and form would have entangled 
our pathway. The race of mammals would especially 
have attracted our attention and excited our surprise. 
*‘ They agreed,” says Cuvier, “ neither specifically, nor 


-even for the most part generically, with any hitherto dis- 


covered in the living creation.” Gigantic elephants, 
of twice the bulk of those which now exist in Ceylon 
and Africa, roamed in herds over the plains; two- 
horned rhinoceroses, of immense proportions, forced 
their way through the forests, wallowed in the 
swamps, and plunged into the stagnant waters, from 
the River Altamaha to the polar regions, and from 
Siberia to the south of Europe; wild oxen, of colos~ 
sal strength, found subsistence in the plains and on the 


oo 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 103 


hill-sides ; tigers, larger and more savage than those 
of Bengal, lay in wait for their prey, and sprang 
upon it, with savage roar, from their lairs; troops of 
hyenas, larger and fiercer than the hyena crocuta of 
Southern Africa, repeated nightly their hideous howl- 
ings; they thronged the valleys and crushed the bones 
of their prey in the dark caverns of earth. There 
were monstrous camels and reindeer; there were 
bears larger than the grizzly bear of the Rocky 
Mountains, and whales of equal bulk with those 
which now swim the ocean. But, during this entire 
age of magnificent forests and mighty mammals, we 
are to bear in mind that the earth at no time, and in 
no place, echoed to the voice of man, or felt the im- 
press of his footfall. All these orders disappeared 
before his arrival. They were destroyed, not by the 
advancing civilization of man, but by the command 
of God. Some of the species, and even genera, of this 
period, seemed to have suffered an earlier extinction 
than others. They remained also in some localities 
much longer than in others. Many perished by nat- 
ural death; others were destroyed by bursting vol- 
canoes. At length, amid some of the most terrible 
convulsions that have ever shaken the earth, these 
races expired, with as sudden death as that of the 
savage monsters of an earlier age. The temperature 
seems to have fallen suddenly to a freezing point, 
where had formerly existed tropical heat. Masses 
of ice were formed among the northern mountains, 
which will not melt until the end of time, and which 
may some day fill the ice-houses of the world. 
Animals were in some cases so suddenly overtaken, 


TO4 _ CREDO. 


that they were frozen in the mud of Siberia, and 
within a few years have been excavated, the flesh in’ 
so perfect state of preservation as to be greedily eaten 
by dogs. What a refrigerator! ‘The disruption of 
the earth’s crust, extending W. 16° S., and E. 16° N., 
through which the chain of the great Alps was forced 
up to its present elevation, which, according to M. 
D’Orbigny, was simultaneous with that which forced 
up the Chilian Andes, —a chain which extends over 
a length of three thousand miles of the western con- 
tinent, — terminated the Tertiary Age, and preceded 
immediately the creation of the human race and its 
concomitant tribes. The waters of the seas and 
oceans, lifted up from their beds by this immense 
perturbation, swept over the continents with irre- 
sistible force, destroying instantaneously the entire 
flora and fauna of the last tertiary period, and bury- 
ing its ruins in the sedimentary deposits which en- 
sued.” * 

Soon after this, the old gray burial-ground of earth, 
which had witnessed at least twenty-seven different 
exterminations and re-creations, was itself buried 
under the freezing waters of the glacial and drift 
period. This constitutes the first formation of the 
last geological layer—the Diluvian. Ice and snow, 
except, perhaps, under the tropics, were at that time 
the lords of the world. The moisture of the atmos- 
phere was condensed; howling winds, loaded with 
stinging frosts, struck upon this surging ocean, and 
were the only visitants to the few mountain peaks of 


* Lardner’s Popular Geology. 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 105 


all the middle and northern latitudes which remained 
above the coagulated waters; frozen vapors shut out 
the light of the sun, and ‘“¢ darkness was upon the face 
of the deep.” How far, infinitely far, does this history 
of earth, in its astonishing surprises, transcend all 
the poetry and romance of mortals! 

We were speaking of the drift period. Scarcely 
a voyage is made across the Atlantic without encoun- 
tering huge icebergs. They are found in all high 
latitudes. These floating monsters have sealed the 
fate of many a ship. They have been stranded upon 
the shores of islands, and produced winter in mid- 
summer. They have been seen standing out of the 
water five hundred feet, which would make their 
entire altitude upwards of four thousand feet. Captain 
D’Urville met with one in the Southern Ocean which 
was thirteen miles in length, and stood out of the 
water, with perpendicular walls, one hundred feet. 
They are often loaded with thousands of tons of rocks 
and soil, which, becoming detached, fall through the 
waters upon the ocean’s bottom. Here is the ‘ drift” 
in miniature. We need no better explanation of the 
presence of those large and disconnected boulders 
which are met everywhere in fields and on hill-sides. 
During the drift and the modified drift periods, the 
earth must have been submerged. North America, 
to the depth of two or three thousand feet, was cov- 
ered with the sea. The peak of Mount Washington 
was the only visible land of New England. 

Professor Ramsey says that the submergence of the 
British Isles is beyond question. The earth was at 
that time swept with oceanic currents, loaded with 


106 CREDO. 


icebergs which had been wrenched off from the 
mountain peaks. A boulder, containing one hun- 
dred and sixty-one thousand cubic feet, was moved a 
distance of thirty-two miles from Jura, one of the 
Alps. By careful measurement the exact place from 
which it was taken among the mountains has been 
found. Northern Germany, Poland, and Russia are 
overspread with boulders from Sweden, Lapland, 
and Finland. Granite rocks, from some source, have 
been thrown down upon Iceland, though the island 
itself was formed from lava. These boulders, discon- 
nected from the ice-floats to which they had been 
attached, sank through the flood of waters, and were 
anchored where they now remain. 

Do such things seem incredible? . They are facts, 
and it would be as impossible to blot them out as 
it would be to obliterate the sun from the heavens. 
That the whole earth, at one time or another, has 
been under water, is the uniform testimony of sci- 
ence. Says Humboldt, ** The highest peaks of the 
Alps were once beneath the ocean’s surface.” ‘ All 
land,” says Lyell, ‘*has been under water.” ‘‘It 
seems,” says Hitchcock, “that the surface of the 
globe has been a shoreless ocean.” ‘+ The highest 
mountains,” says Tenney, ‘‘have once been the 
ocean’s bottom.” The same sublime and startling 
record is inscribed upon every mountain peak and 
range around the globe, east and west, north and 
south, far and near. But whence came the waters? 
No matter whence: there are the facts. The land 
may have been depressed; if not, there is water 
enough in reserve to drown the world at any time. 


EE 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 107 


Were the moisture in the forty miles of atmosphere 
above us condensed by the proper climatic changes, 
or were the electricity discharged from it to the 
earth, there would be an amount of water, which, in 
connection with that in the fifty miles of the earth's 
crust beneath us, could easily produce, without a 
miracle of creation, the drift-flood or the flood of 
Noah. Or, in the language of Scripture, ‘if the 
windows of heaven should be opened,” ‘‘and the 
fountains of the great deep be broken up,” by the 
simple passage of electricity from the atmosphere to 
the earth for forty days and forty nights, there would 
be water enough, as the result, to flood the world to 
the mountain tops. 

It is because of God’s mercy, and because he has 
promised to hold these elements suspended, and be- 
cause the beautiful bow spans the heavens after a 
summer shower, that we have not every reason to 
fear lest the earth be again deluged in water. 

Before passing from the drift period, let us reflect 
for a moment upon the lapse of time which must have 
intervened after the earth had received its present 
configuration, and even after it had become the abode 
of animal and vegetable life, before reaching this Ice 
epoch. 

Investigation proves that the Rivers Rhine and Con- 
necticut must have been in existence not less than 
twenty thousand years. They were flowing all this 
time through nearly the same configuration of coun- 
try as that along which they now wander to the sea. 
The one looked upon its romantic and limestone, 
the other its picturesque and red sandstone banks. 


108 CREDO. 


The Niagara, with six hundred thousand tons of 
water passing a given point every minute, judging 
from its present rate of retrocession, had been wearing 
its channel back from Queenstown for not less than 
thirty-six thousand years. But the sublimity of its 
fall and the beauty of its arch of light were seen 
through all that period by no human eye. Its majes- 
tic voice fell only upon the ear of the beasts that 
denned among the adjacent mountains or wandered 
upon its trembling shores. The Mississippi, which, 
with its present rate of deposit, must have been flow- 
ing at least fourteen thousand years, had found its 
way to the Gulf, and was forming with its sediment 
the State of Louisiana. 

Back of these dates the ages roll up almost beyond 
conception. Mountain ranges were rising, valleys 
were sinking, oceans becoming dry land, and dry 
land becoming oceans, demanding ages and ages for 
their transitions to take place. The embalmed 
fossil subjects of the past, though in as perfect a state 
of preservation as the mummies of Egypt, have been 
handed down, in some instances, through millions 
and millions of centuries. But why is revelation 
silent as to these things? Why, it might as well be 
asked, is it silent as to almost everything, save our 
duties and relation to God? Why silent as to so 
much secular history, — dwelling almost exclusively 
upon those events which point forward and backward 
to the Christ of God and of Calvary? If the Bible 
contained a full report and history of the universe, 
who could read it? It was important that man 
should know how he came upon the earth, and 


a 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 109 


who was the author of his being; but was it im- 
portant that he should know the number of the 
planets, or the number of convulsions through which 
the earth has passed in its long history? Concerning 
these things the Bible is silent: an impostor would 
not have been.. 

But how compare and harmonize the accounts of 
science with those of revelation? This is the vital 
question. We must admit that if revelation, when 
properly interpreted, and science, when rightly un- 
derstood, are two opposing citadels, frowning defi- 
ance upon each other, then Moses was not inspired, 
the book is not supernatural, and must fall to the 
ground. If, on the other hand, each has its own 
separate foundation, and both together prove them- 
selves compartments of one great fabric, reared to 
the glory of God, then would it not appear that 
the Mosaic account of creation is supernatural ? 

The test question is before us. Is the first chapter 
of Genesis ancient o7 modern? Is it ancient and 
modern? Can we claim that there is no language 
or speech at human command which more perfectly 
or more exactly expresses the condition of the earth 
after these mighty vicissitudes of which we have been 
speaking had taken place, and during the drift, when 
the world was ingulfed in dark, turbid, and frozen 
waters, than the original text of the old Hebrew 
prophet? Is it true that ‘‘the earth had become a 
waste and a void, that darkness was upon the face 
of the roaring deep, and that the soul of God was 
brooding upon the, face of the waters”? Can we 
evade the evidence of inspiration, if the Bible and 


Ifto CREDO. 


science agree at this point? And do they not agree? 
Is it not true that long after the creation of matter, ‘‘ in 
the beginning,” long after the sandstones, coal, lime- 
stones, and animal remains of earth had been formed 
and deposited, long after the ancient river courses, the 
Rhine, Niagara, and Mississippi, had found the sea, 
that then, all things were ingulfed under the waters 
of the drift, which were laden with ice-floats and 
which bore upon their bosoms the ruins of past gener- 
ations? Do not the surface boulders and erratic stones 
found in every country confirm the statement that this 
was the condition of the world, and that it occurred 
just before the present, or the human era? 

Says Lyell, — and his testimony is of peculiar value, 
as he never makes an attempt to reconcile revelation 
and science, — ‘* Some parts of the Mississippi valley 
show that it has been excavated, then filled up, and 
subsequently re-excavated.” Of this last submergence, 
taking his observations from Europe, as well as Amer- 
ica, he says, ‘* The retreat of the waters may have 
left no monument, in some cases, of the event; but from 
those existing we must infer that it was an event of 
times comparatively modern.” Neither will Lyell, 
nor any other geologist, deny the statement that the 
world has not been above the waters of that period in 
its present condition for much, if any more, than six 
thousand years. Is not the book ancient azd modern? 
But test the question still more rigidly. Examine the 
Mosaic days of creation, granting that the previous 
flora must have been destroyed by the drift, that man 
had nowhere been seen, and that most of the old fauna 
had perished, may we not ask, whence the present 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. Ii! 


life and beauty of the world? Was there anything in 
the apparently insane and boisterous play of the great 
physical catastrophe of the nine distinct and long-con- 
tinued eras we have been considering, anything in the 
turbulence and mighty clamor of the drift period, which 
could repeople the earth with living inhabitants? Of 
course there was nothing. Had not the voice of God 
been heard above the waters, they had remained as 
they were. 

But at length the Spirit of God, the energizing 
power of all things, brooded upon the face of the 
deep. The world’s temperature was changed. A 
warm breath floated over the seas. The condensed 
vapors gave way somewhat. ‘The gaseous medium, 
which had been produced perhaps by plutonic action, 
was penetrated by light. The surface of the abyss 
was visited by struggling rays so far illuminating it 
that the interchange of day and night became discern- 
ible, though the heavenly bodies were still excluded 
from view. ‘Then was evening, then was morning, 
day one.” ‘Thus ended the first day of the last crea- 
tion, a day of twenty-four hours. 

At the dawning of the next morning an element 
was introduced into the atmosphere, by which the 
murky and aqueous fogs were lifted to the higher 
regions. of the sky, or became invisible vapor. Heavy, 
dark, and dripping clouds still overspread the sky ; but 
there was a space of pellucid air mantling the earth, 
suitable for the respiration of flora and fauna. ‘ Then 
was evening, then was morning, day second.” 

As the third day approached, the waters might have 
been seen receding. They were absorbed into the 


- 


I12 CREDO. 


atmosphere. They flowed down from the heights. 
They sank into new-made gulfs, and places that had 
been prepared for them. The gray mountains and 
the shaded dells rose from their watery beds, greeting 
the new-born light, and the ancient rivers resumed 
their former channels to the sea. The description of 
the Psalmist for beauty of representation cannot be 
surpassed. ‘* Thou coveredst it with the deep as with 
a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At 
thy rebuke they fled: at the voice of thy thunder they 
hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they 
go down by the valleys unto the place which thou 
hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that 
they may not pass over; that they turn not again to 
cover the earth.” (Ps. civ. 6~10.) Near the close of 
this day God also covered the hills and valleys with 
full-grown grass, herbs, and fruit trees; ‘‘ and formed 
every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and 
every herb of the field before it grew.” (Gen. ii. 5+) 
** Then was evening, then was morning, day third.” 

The darkness of that third night was followed by a 
sublime morning. The leaden clouds were broken 
through by thé sunbeams. They glistened upon the 
mountain peaks, they kissed the vales, they tipped the 
waves of the sea with silver. The new-made flora 
felt their influences. The life-giving sap circulated 
through trunk and limb, and the leaves nodded to the 
breeze. 

After this followed naturally the appointments of 
those indispensable heavenly measures of time, to be 
‘* for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years,” 
according to which are meted out the eras of human 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. 113 


history and the cycles of natural science; according 
to which the mariner has learned to mark the latitude 
and longitude of his ship; according to which the 
astronomer determines the place, as well as the time, 
of the planetary orbs of heaven; and according to 
which the laborer shall ever go to his labor, and seek 
his repose. In the inimitable language of Mr. Everett, 
“* But for all the kindreds and tribes and tongues of 
men,—each upon their own meridian, — from the 
Arctic pole to the equator, from the equator to the 
Antarctic pole, the eternal sun strikes twelve at noon, 
and the glorious constellations, far up in the everlast- 
ing belfries of the skies, chime twelve at midnight; 
twelve for the pale student over his flickering lamp; 
twelve amid the flaming wonders of Orion’s belt, if 
he crosses the meridian at that fated hour; twelve 
by the weary couch of languishing humanity ; twelve 
in the star-paved courts of the empyrean; twelve 
for the heaving tides of the ocean; twelve for the 
weary arm of labor; twelve for the toiling brain; 
twelve for the watching, waking, broken heart ; twelve 
for the meteor which blazes for a moment and expires ; 
twelve for the comet whose period is measured by 
centuries ; twelve for every substantial, for every im- 
aginary thing, which exists in the sense, the intellect, 
or the fancy, and which the speech or thought of man, 
at the given meridian, refers to the lapse of time.” 
‘* Then was evening, then was morning, day fourth.” 

On the fifth day the lower orders of the existing 
species of animals were created, with the possible ex- 
ception of a few survivors of the drift, which may have 
remained in the seas and on the mountains of the trop- 


8 


114 CREDO. 


ics, —such as the red-deer, wild-cat, bear, wild-boar, 
wolf, weasel, hedge-hog, mole, dor-mouse, field-mouse, 
water-rat, and shrew. This class of animals might 
have subsisted upon tropical mountains, under the 
conditions imposed by the drift. 

On the sixth day, the higher orders of mammals were 
created. Then, when all else was completed on earth ; 
when the volcanic fires had fused and crystallized its 
granite, and piled it up in lofty mountain ranges; 
when the flowing and returning waters had selected 
and borne down into distant vales the vegetable soils ; 
when electric shocks had interlaced the earth with 
metallic veins; when the ancient forests had hardened 
into coal, and were stored up by the cubic mile, hay- 
ing yielded also their vast reservoirs of petroleum ; 
when the deposits of primeval waters had become iron 
and crystal salt ; when successive races of animals had 
become a multitude of useful materials; after reptiles 
had cleared the waters of impurities; after birds had 
devoured the animal remains, and enriched the soil, 
and after the monster mammals had removed the rub- 
bish from therearth’s surface ; after the great flood had 
rolled back, and ‘ the star-spangled dome had been lit 
up,” and the earth’s surface had been carpeted with 
delicate and soft green; after the rich profusion of 
natural scenery had been prepared, the flowers filled 
with fragrance, the trees hung with delicious fruit, — 
‘‘ then created God the man, in his image ; in the image 
of God created he him; male and female created he 
them.” ‘Then was evening, then was morning, day 
sixth.” | 

Sceptics have occasionally startled the world with 


a an > a» 


oe ae ee ee 


A SUPERNATURAL BOOK. | 115 


an announcement of the alleged discovery of human 
remains and stone instruments among geological de- 
posits of much earlier date than the Alluvium. All, 
however, agree that none are found earlier than the 
mammal age. All agree that great uncertainty attends 
chronological conclusions based upon two consecutive 
periods, It can be proved with equal satisfaction, trom 
coins found in the conglomerates at Tisbury, England, 
that the reign of Edward I. was thousands of years 
earlier than it actually was. Egyptian monuments 
show similar results. Bricks dug from the shores of 
the Nile, which must have been embedded there not 
more than three or four thousand years B. C., appear, 
by the same evidence which carries the antiquity of 
man beyond the alluvium, to have been left there from 
twelve to thirty thousand years ago. Such errors are 
not uncommon. We admit that human remains of 
bones and stone instruments may be found in close 
proximity to animals of the Mammal age, some species 
‘of which may have existed early in the Post-Pliocene. 
They ought to be in such neighborhood, for the Drift 
only intervened. But we may unhesitatingly affirm 
that Adam was the only living type of his kind on 
earth at the time of his creation, and that it remains to 
be satisfactorily proved, so far as any discoveries have 
yet been made, that any human being appeared on the 
earth earlier than six thousand years ago. How near 
these thoughts bring the present race to the Infinite 
Mind! We seem to feel the touch of his hand upon 
us. We seem to hear his voice, as in the garden, and 
feel his sustaining agency at every step of our pilgrim- 
age. Being so near us, is it to be thought improbable 


116 CREDO. 


that communion is still open between God and the 
race of the fallen? 

The world was prepared ; man was created; the 
seventh period dawned; God rested. Search in the 
air, over the land, or through the seas, to find one new 
species, created since the appearance of man, and you 
will search in vain. Six thousand years ago the work 
of creation was completed; and, as connected with 
this world, completed never again to be resumed, until 
the Sabbath of His repose shall be broken by the dis- 
play of the new manifestations which await the con- 
summation of human history. But, in the mean time, 
what ought the world to say respecting the coincidences 
between revelation and science? Is the wisdom dis- 
played by that old Hebrew prophet, almost in advance 
of the accumulated discoveries of four thousand years, 
of no account? Was all he said the result of unaided 
human wisdom? Was the language which so wonder- 
fully embodies the world’s history from the beginning 
__ its creation and development — accidental? Adding 
to this account the prophetic character of the book, 
its poetry, its morals, and its religion, may we not 
well concur with the admission of Sir Walter Scott, 
‘There is but one book”? May we not verily pity 
the man whose numb and icy fingers handle this 
sacred word without perceiving that in kind there is 
none like it? Is it not supernatural? 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 


(117) 


“This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all wit- 
nesses.” Acts ii. 32. 


‘And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, 
and your faith is also vain. 

‘Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we 
have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he 
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 

“¢ And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain: ye are yet 
in your sins. 

‘Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are per- 
ished. 

“Tf in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all 


men most miserable.” 1 Cor. xv. 14, 15, 17-19. 


‘¢The resurrection of Christ is a true Shzbboleth, distin- - 


guishing opposing world views.” STRAUSS. 


‘“‘ The words ‘ Christ is risen from the dead’ should be well 
marked, and written with great letters. Each letter should be 
as large as a town, yea, even as high as heaven and broad 
as the earth, so that we see nothing, hear nothing, think 


nothing, know nothing beyond it.” MARTIN LUTHER. 


‘¢] wll mot believe a miracle.” WVOLTAIRE. 


(118) 


THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD 
JESUS. 


ID that person who called himself Jesus, who is 
known by that name both in sacred and profane 
history, actually die? and afterwards did he rise from 
the dead? Concerning this remarkable event we have 
in existence the written testimony of four different per- 
sons, for whom especial inspiration is claimed; also 
the statements of certain other writers, for whom in- 
spiration is not claimed. The first step in the discus- 
sion will be an examination into the character and 
competency of the witnesses, their relation to the per- 
son of Christ, their knowledge of his life, and the sub- 
stance of their testimony. ° 
The Inspired Witnesses.— Following the order of 
the Gospels, the first writer and witness we notice is 
Matthew, the publican. Before his conversion this 
evangelist was a collector of customs at the port of 
Capernaum, a city situated upon the great commer- 
cial thoroughfare between Damascus, Babylon, and 
Southern Palestine. During an early visit of Jesus of 
Nazareth to this city, Matthew was awakened by his 


teachings, obeyed a great and gracious call, forsook a 
(119) 


120 CREDO. 


highly remunerative employment, and became a disci- 
ple. His Gospel was, probably, the first written. 
Irenzus states that it was composed while Peter and 
Paul were preaching and founding a church at Rome. 
It was written first in the Hebrew, subsequently in the 
Greek language. The statements of Matthew concern- 
ing the life, death, and resurrection of his Master are 
the happy embodiment of a joyous and vigorous faith. 
_ It was based upon the facts of Christ’s history, and a | 
personal connection therewith. His acquaintance with 
Jesus commenced before the sermon on the mount, 
and continued until the ascension. 

The Holy Spirit directed Matthew, as an inspired 
writer, to record the things dove and sazd by his Mas- 
ter, rather than to give the precise order in which they _ 
took place. He recalls and delivers to the world the 
narratives of the Gospel and the sermons of his Teach- 
er with the strictest verbal exactness, irrespective of 
special logical connection. 

The second witness and writer is Mark. This evan- 
gelist was a native of Jerusalem. He is sometimes 
called John Mark. He was a friend and occasional 
fellow-laborer with Paul, a convert and companion of 
Peter, a nephew of Barnabas, and the son of a certain 
Mary, a woman of influence, wealth, and piety, whose 
residence, we have reason to believe, was the usual 
place of entertainment for our Lord while in the city 
of Jerusalem. Her house seems to have been a common 
resort for early Christians; to it Peter naturally direct- 
ed his steps upon his deliverance from prison. She was 
also proprietress of an estate in the suburbs of Jerusa- 
Jem, near or in the garden of Gethsemane. John Mark, 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I2I 


her son, though not a disciple, was, at an early age, 
made an acquaintance and friend of Jesus. He was 
undoubtedly the young man his Gospel mentions who 
followed Christ on the night of his betrayal and ar- 
rest. Admitting the inspiration of this writer, it 
seems that the peculiar work assigned to him by the 
Holy Spirit was, in a fresh, peculiar, and lively nar- 
rative, to set before the world a history of the official 
mission of Christ, rather than his verbal teachings. 
He recounts, with striking clearness, his Master’s glo- 
rious achievements in a warfare against sin and Satan. 
We have from his pen the highest example of heroism 
on record. Mark was not, as some have supposed, a 
mere secretary, or penman, of the apostle Peter. The 
evidence is entirely satisfactory that he wrote his Gos- 
pel by the revelation of the Holy Spirit to himself. 
Of this fact, tradition informs us, Peter was fully cog- 
nizant. Mark writes with the peculiar minuteness, 
freshness, and circumstantial ease of an independent 
eye-witness. He described the looks, gestures, and 
tones, employed on different occasions, so graphically 
as almost to transform us into eye-witnesses. This 
phenomenon goes very far in proving that he wrote 
independently, except as directed by the Holy Ghost. 

The third writer whose testimony we have is the 
evangelist Luke. This witness was a liberally-edu- 
cated man. He was a physician by profession. He 
was born in Syria. He passed his early life in the 
polished city of Antioch. Later, he became a faith- 
ful friend and companion of the apostle Paul. Just 
before his martyrdom, writing from his Roman prison 
to Timothy, Paul gave this touching testimonial of 


122 CREDO. 


the faithfulness of this evangelist and friend: ‘“ Only 
Luke is with me.” On turning from the Gospels of 
Matthew and Mark to that of Luke, we are conscious 
of receiving a peculiar impression, as of one passing 
into another atmosphere. It is a Gospel upon the 
same theme, but different in form, different and fuller 
in its narratives. The composition and style plainly 
indicate that the writer was not brought up at the 
receipt of customs, or among the nets of the fisher- 
men of Galilee, but convey upon the surface the 
strongest possible evidence of refinement and schol- 
arship. Luke was not an eye-witness from the begin- 
ning of our Lord’s ministry, but was an cye-witness 
of the most important events of his life, especially of 
those occurring amid the scenes of his death and res- 
urrection. In some respects the most interesting ap- 
pearance of Christ after his resurrection was granted 
to this disciple and Cleopas, while journeying to Em- 
_maus. 

Admitting the inspiration of Luke, the particular 
work assigned to him by the Holy Spirit was, to make 
the most careful researches from all reliable sources into 
the facts of the life of the Lord Jesus, from the beginning, 
and to represent him as practising in that profession to 
which his own life had been previously dedicated. We 
have from his pen a picture of Christ as the great Physi- 
cian of the world. In his Gospel the Saviour is seen 
** going about doing good,” healing, by his touch or his 
word, difficult and long-standing diseases, and implant- 
ing hope and joy in the troubled hearts of humanity. — 

The fourth and last inspired witness, whose com- 
plete record we hav«, is John, the brother of James. 


Te = 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 123 


This writer was the son of pious Jewish parents, who 
took rank, not among the higher and professional, but 
among the middle, though respectable, classes of 
society. John was, at first, a disciple of the Baptist 
bearing the same name. He was one of the first to 
foliow our Saviour. His Gospel and style are pe- 
culiar. Gibbon says, ‘“* He is the most sublime of all 
the evangelists.’ There is no writer in the world 
with whom it is not difficult to compare him. His 
opening chapter bears the most overwhelming evi- 
dence that he wrote as moved upon by the Spirit of 
God. He was directed to give us a deep and inspir- 
ing insight into the divine and eternal nature of that 
Being whom he loved and worshipped. There is 
something melancholy, something inspiring, some- 
thing sublime, and something which often implies 
more than language can express, in much that he 
says. But behind these fleecy clouds which occa- 
sionally arise, we are ever confident there is shining _ 
the full, clear, glorious Sun of Righteousness. Of 
the death and resurrection of Christ this evangelist 
speaks with. remarkable force and clearness. He 
tells the world that he was an eye-witness. He says 
he saw his Master when dead, and when risen, and 
on no less than five different occasions. He is con- 
fident. He knows what he affirms. He was on the 
spot.. He must be impeached or believed. 

Such, in brief, are the four inspired witnesses of the 
risen Saviour whose-testimony has been recorded and 
handed down to us. They are men of different na- 
tures. They give especial prominence to different 
events. They were chosez to give us these records 


124 CREDO, 


because different, and because they could thus meet 
and better satisfy the wants of the world. 

Two objections are frequently urged against their 
inspiration. First, that their accounts do not, in all 
points, agree. Second, that the individual peculiari- 
ties of the writers everywhere appear in the Gospels, 
which would not need be the case if the men were 
inspired, especially if they were verbally inspired. 

If by non-agreement is meant that the different ac- 
counts of the death and resurrection of Christ are not 
in wzzson, we admit their non-agreement. But if it 
is meant that the accounts do not harmontze, the ob- 
jection is groundless. There is not aneson, but there 
is perfect harmony, from the first passage of Matthew 
to the last of John. As in music, so among these 
writers, the effect from harmony is far deeper and 
purer than that from simple unison. 

Again: If the objector means that the Scriptures 
are not written in a manner which is best calculated 
to convince the world of the truth of verbal inspira- 
tion, independent of every other consideration, the 
objection is valid. God's purpose has not been to 
give signs to men, but to disclose truth. For the 
most part he avoids the appearance of supernatural 
agencies, both in nature and revelation; always, ex- 
cept when such displays are peculiarly necessary, or 
when an assertion is required in order to establish 
authority. The proof of inspiration, plenary as well 
as verbal, must, in God’s economy, be largely inci- 
dental. 

But, on the other hand, if it is meant that the Scrip- 
tures are not written in a manner which is best calcu- 


_—— 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 125 


lated to convince mankind of the truthfulness of the 
facts recorded (which was doubtless the object of the 
Holy Spirit), then the believer denies the force of 
the objection. The manner and style of the Gospel 
narratives are the best possible for such a purpose. 
Strike out the individual peculiarities from the rec- 
ords, and the unbeliever would disregard entirely the 
ordinary arguments for inspiration, and would admit 
only the evidence of forgery and connivance. 

These positions may be illustrated. If we desired 
to give society the best account of some distinguished 
preacher of our own day, we would not select one 
witness, but three or four. We would not choose 
men who are as nearly alike as possible, but who 
are unlike, respecting age, culture, and character: In 
making their announcements, we would not have them 
employ the same, but different language, in presenting 
the same incident. We would not have them copy, 
or seem to copy, one another’s statements. We would 
have them write, in fact and in appearance, indepen- 
dently of each other. We would have one selected 
who would be adapted to give a careful survey of the 
preacher’s entire discourse, — the occasion, text, course 
of thought, and subject matter, — and who would give 
it in an orderly and business-like manner. This is 
what has been done, in the case of our Saviour, by 
Matthew, and, in certain respects, by Matthew alone. 

Another critic would be selected, who, from choice, 
would describe the preacher’s manner in the pulpit, 
and who would be able to give a graphic description 
of the eflect of his discourse upon his hearers. This 
is what has been done, in case of our Saviour, by 


126 CREDO. 


Mark, and, in certain respects, by Mark alone. 
Another would be selected who would naturally 
give a reliable account of the past history of the 
preacher in question, his deportment among the poor 
and sinful, and who could appreciate his remarkable 
sayings, and who could select notes from his pulpit, 
his beauties, his gems of thought, without being con- 
fined to any given order, or plan of sermon. This is 
what has been done, in the case of our Saviour, by the 
evangelist Luke, as by no other witness. 

Lastly, we would select one who could appreciate 
the spirit of the preacher, his hidden and devotional 
life, the deep and inspiring motives of his soul, and his 
communion with the Invisible. The presentation of 
this peculiar phase of Christ’s life and character has 


been given us by the apostle John, and by him alone. | 


The Gospels present to the world a model in respect 
both to the fulness and the truthfulness of the facts re- 
corded. Look at these witnesses. Two were mem- 
bers of Christ’s church — Matthew and John. Two 
were members of his congregation — Mark and Luke. 
One was a business man; another was a young 
man, who witnessed the daily life of our Saviour, 
and whose mother’s house was his customary home 
during his visits to the city. One was a professional 
man, an educated physician; and the other was for 
three years a most intimate companion. By what 
possible choice or concurrence could a better selec- 
tion have been made? Upon what possible arrange- 
ment of testimony could one more securely stand 
while cherishing the sublimest truths that can ever 
greet our ears? 


a 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I 27 


Uninspired Witnesses. — The first from this class 
is Ignatius. He was a devoted Christian, a contem- 
porary of our Saviour, and a martyr to his belief in 
his Lord’s divinity. In his letter to the Philadelphians 
he employs the following language: ‘ Christ truly suf- 
fered, as he also truly raised up himself. I 2ow that 
after the resurrection he was in the flesh, and I delzeve 
him to be so still. And when he came to those who 
were with Peter, he said to them, Take, handle me, 
and see that I am not an incorporeal phantom.” 

The genuineness of this letter remains undisputed. 
The writer claims to have had convincing evidence of 
Christ’s resurrection, either from eye-sight or from the 
testimony of those who had seen him after he had 
risen. Another early writer was Polycarp. He was 
a personal friend of Ignatius, and a convert and disci- 
ple of the apostle John. In a letter written to the 
church at Philippi, he exhorts the converts to believe 
in Christ, ‘* whom,” he says, ‘¢ God did certainly raise 
from the dead.” Surely the dogma of Christ’s resur- 
rection was not a late invention of the church! 

One of the most celebrated writers of the early Chris- 
tian church was Tertullian. According to Eusebius, he 
was highly distinguished among the most eminent men 
of Rome. In one of his works — the * Apologeticus ” 
— he says that “‘ the fame of our Lord’s remarkable res- 
urrection and ascension being now spread abroad, 
Pontius Pilate, according to an ancient custom of com- 
municating novel occurrences to the emperor, that 
nothing might escape him, transmitted to Tiberius, 
Emperor of Rome, an account of the resurrection of 
our Lord from the dead.” In this account Pilate 


128 CREDO. 


intimated that Christ was believed to be a God, after 
his resurrection, by the great mass of the people. 
‘¢ Tiberius,” continues the writer, ‘ referred the whole 
matter to the senate, who, being unacquainted with 
the facts, rejected it.” 

The integrity of this passage is not questioned by 
the most sceptical critics. But for the destruction of 
the Alexandrian and Roman libraries, we have every 
reason to believe that there would be found in them 
to-day the account of Christ’s resurrection, which was 
written by Pilate to the Roman senate, together with 
the record of their action respecting it. Those libraries 
have been destroyed. That of Alexandria, containing 
seven hundred thousand volumes, was consumed by 
fire, its entire destruction occupying six months. Those 
of Rome were destroyed during the reign of Gregory 
the Great, about the close of the sixth century. Fortu- 
nately for the world, however, providence had taken 
care to preserve the most important records of the most 
important events in history. Few to-day can be found 
who are not,ready to acknowledge, however much 
they may regret the spoliations of Khaleefeh’ Omar 
and Gregory,-that the loss of the Sacred Scriptures 
would have been more serious to the world than has 
been the loss of all the libraries of Rome and Alex- 
andria,. 

An examination of the facts which the evangelists 
have stated concerning the death and resurrection of 
our Saviour. 

On the evening of the day preceding his trial, Jesus 
and his disciples, according to the united testimony 
of the evangelists, partook of their last meal together. 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 129 


(Matt. xxvi. 20. Mark xiv. 17. Luke xxii. 14.) The 
day is not stated. It has been generally supposed 
that it was Thursday. There are many forcible con- 
siderations which decide in favor of Wednesday. 
Later the same evening, probably between eleven and 
twelve o’clock, they left the banquet-hall for a retired 
garden, or park, situated to the east of the city. (Matt. 
xxvi. 30-46. Mark xiv. 26-42. Luke xxii. 39-46. 
John xviii. 1.) On the following morning the Saviour 
was betrayed, and suffered a voluntary arrest. (Matt. 
xxvi. 47-56. Mark xiv. 43-52. Luke xxii. 47-53. 
John xviii. 2-12.) The various trials were then insti- 
tuted, and occupied until daylight. (Matt. xxvii. 1. 
Mark xv. 1. Luke xxii. 63-71. John xviii. 28.) The 
preliminaries of the crucifixion followed, and were 
completed some time before nine o’clock the same 
morning. From that hour until noon, the multitudes 
stood by beholding. (Luke xxiii. 35.) The priests 
and rulers, followed by some of the people, meanwhile 
insulted and mocked him. (Matt. xxvii. 39-44. Mark 
xv. 29-32.) From twelve o’clock, noon, until three 
in the afternoon, a thick darkness veiled the heavens. 
(Matt. xxvii. 45, 46. Mark xv. 33, 34. Luke xxiii. 
44-46.) <A fact stated both by contemporaneous 
Christian and pagan writers. Says Phlegon, a pagan, 
and the compiler of ** The Olympiads,” ‘* There was, 
at this time, an eclipse of the sun, the greatest of any 
ever previously known.” Celsus also alludes to the 
same phenomenon, but regards it only as something 
very wonderful. It is worthy of remark that this could 
not have been a natural eclipse of the sun; for the 
passover was always held at the time of full moon, 


9 


130 CREDO. 


‘which precludes the possibility of a solar eclipse. 
During this darkness, Christ expired. (Matt. xxvii. 
50. Mark xv. 37. Luke xxiii. 46. John xix. 30.) 
The darkness which had continued for three hours 
gave place again to sunlight. Shortly after this, a 
soldier, in the faithful discharge of his duty, as he 
supposed, but that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, 
pierced the Saviour to the heart with a spear. (John 
xix. 33.) John, who says he was present, states that 
blood and water followed the removal of the spear. 
(John xix. 35.) From this statement the world may 
know that Christ was dead, and not in a swoon. It is 
possible that his spiritual sufferings had been so in- 
tense for several months as to result in an affection of 
the heart, which at length, in a paroxysm of excessive 
grief, burst, resulting in instant death. On this sup- 
position, the flowing of both blood and water from the 
wound of the spear can be easily accounted for. ‘+ And 
Joseph of Arimathea, a counsellor, went unto Pilate, 
and begged the body of Jesus.” (Matt. xxvii. 57, 58. 
Mark xv. 42; 43. Luke xxiii. 50-52. John xix. 38, 
39.) ‘And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead.” 
(Mark xv. 44.) He died not from crucifixion; his 
death was too sudden for that; but the Saviour of the 
world had died from a grief-burdened and literally 
broken heart. Permission being granted by Pilate, the 
corpse was taken from the cross, and placed in a new 
tomb, by two secret friends of Jesus. These men 
were not numbered among his disciples. They were 
both members of the great national council of the 
Jews, which had condemned him. (Matt. xxvii. 59, 
60. Mark xv. 45, 46. Luke xxiii. 53. John xix. 


—_— 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I3f 


40-42.) At the instigation of his enemies, a strong 
guard was subsequently despatched to the place of 
interment. The language is very explicit —‘ The 
chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 
saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while 
he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. 
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure 
until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, 
and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is 
risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse 
than the first. Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch; 
go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they 
went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone 
and setting a watch.” (Matt. xxvii. 62-66.) The 
strong guard, the large stone, the governor’s seal, show 
what ample precautions were taken to guard against 
deception. 

Such, in brief, is the narration of the death and 
burial of Jesus Christ. Applying whatever historical 
tests we choose to these accounts, must we not concede 
that he actually died at the time, in the place and un- 
der the circumstances here narrated? Would not a 
denial reduce all history, ancient and recent, toa myth? 

The Account of the Resurrection.—Certain women, 
friends of Jesus, had gathered in Jerusalem on Friday 
afternoon, and by contribution and purchase were col- 
lecting various kinds of spices for the purpose of em- 
balming the body. They did not know that this had 
been attended to by Joseph and Nicodemus. Six 
o'clock Friday evening was upon them, and further ar- 
rangements must be deferred. At that time the Jew- 
ish Sabbath began, and all preparations of the kind, 


132 CREDO. 


by custom and law, must cease. They remained in 
the city, however, and observed the following day, ac- 
cording to the commandment. (Luke xxiii. 56.) On 
the succeeding morning (our Sunday), before light, 
they started for the sepulchre in the garden of Geth- 
semane. While on the way an earthquake of unusual 
power and extent occurred ; it is the one, undoubtedly, 
to which Phlegon refers, and which he says ‘f was 
felt in distant Bithynia, overthrowing some of the 
houses.” This, and certain other unnatural phenom- 
ena, so terrified the guard that they fled, fearing less 
to encounter death than to remain and witness the 
strange scenes that confronted them. (Matt. xxviii. 
2,4.) The women were also terrified. They paused 
in their steps, and gazed in silence upon each other’s 
faces. The effects of the heavy shock soon passed 
away. There was again the wonted calm of early 
dawn; the earth ceased to tremble; the disturbed at- 
mosphere was again in repose; the flashing light 
faded away; the native birds broke forth in their 
early songs; the fingers of the morning were seen 
pointing steadily up from the eastern sky ; and the 
women, filled only with desires of honoring their divine 
Master, and anxious only to know who should roll 
away the stone, continued their journey. (Mark XVi. 3.) 
They seem not to have heard of the last order to guard 
the tomb, or else, not understanding what was the im- 
port of the ‘* governor’s seal,” they looked for no oppo- 
sition to their effort; and they met with none, The 
guard had fled; the seal was broken, the stone re- 
moved ; but the body they sought was not there. (Mark 
xv. 4. Luke xxiv. 2,3.) This discovery filled them 


—__- =< Fe 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 133 


with disappointment. ‘ And it came to pass, as they 
were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men 
stood by them in shining garments” (Luke xxiv. 4), 
and said unto them, ‘* Go your way, tell his disciples 
and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there 
shall ye see him, as he said unto you.” (Mark 
XVI. 7.) 

Peter and John had remained during the night at 
some place near the tomb; so near, they could pass 
the entire distance at a single run. The other disci- 
ples had fled, perhaps through fear, to some more dis- 
tant place, probably Bethany, beyond the Mount of 
Olives. The mission of informing the disciples was 
then arranged by the women, as follows: Mary was 
to make the announcement to Peter and John, which 
she did in the mournful words, ‘They have taken 
away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not 
where they have laid him.” (John xx. 2.) The rest 
of the women were to depart quickly for Bethany, and 
announce what they had seen and heard to the other 
disciples. (Mark xvi. 8.) Peter and John, informed 
by Mary, were soon on their way to Gethsemane. 
They went in haste, leaving Mary behind them. 
John, the younger, outran Peter, and, reaching the 
tomb first, looked in, but did not enter. ‘* Then com- 
eth Simon Peter, and went into the sepulchre, and 
saw the linen clothes and napkin,” properly laid and 
folded. The resurrection had taken place quietly, and 
with all the composure of divinity. After these ex- 
aminations had been made, Peter and John retired, 
going “unto their own home.” (John xx. 10.) The 


tomb was again left without guard, or visitor. The 
> 


134 CREDO. 


distressed Mary could not long remain away from the 
sacred spot, and soon after the departure of the dis- 
ciples, she revisited the tomb, this time alone. The 
other women were on their way to Bethany. 

Why should she return to the sepulchre ! — Where 
_else would she be likely to go? The best friend she 
had ever known — the one who had saved her from a 
terrible malady, and instructed her in the way of eter- 
nal life — was dead. As she sought alone the entrance 
of the empty tomb, she simply followed the natural in- 
stincts, not of a ‘‘ distracted,” but of a devoted woman’s 
heart. While she lingered there, the vision of angels 
was repeated— “‘Anqd they say unto her, Woman, why 
weepest thou?” She, in her reply, offered the same 
artless language as that employed to Peter and John, 
with the exception that this time she made use of 
the singular, ‘‘/,” instead of the plural, ‘we.’ And 
‘they have taken him away,” was the bitter thought 
that haunted her troubled soul. Mary, they have not 
taken him away! ‘She turned herself back, and saw 
Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus; ” but, 
“supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, 
Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou 
hast laid him, and I will take him away.” (John xx. 
15.) ‘Jesus saith unto her, Mary.” (John xx. 16.) 
Belief, hope, conviction, and amazement burst upon 
her soul at the sound of that familiar voice speaking 
her own name. In the excess of her joy her native 
Hebrew dialect came first to her lips in the honored 
expression, ** Rabboni!” (John xx. 17.) And Mary 
Magdalene, once a sinful woman, by virtue of her 


subsequent zeal and devotion, became the first mortal 
? 


‘ ~ rate 
See ae Te SS 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 135 


preacher of the risen Saviour. (Mark xvi. 9.) Christ 
bade her not delay at the tomb, but go and announce 
his resurrection to his brethren. After this he ap- 
peared to the other women, probably while on the 
way to Bethany, and bade them also make the same 
announcement. They hastened to the house where the 
disciples were met, and related that, while they were 
on their way, Jesus had met them, saying, “* All hail!” 
(Matt. xxviii.9, 10.) ‘* And they returned,” says Luke, 
** and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all 
the rest. And their words seemed to them as idle 
tales, and they believed them not.” (Luke xxiv. 9, 11.) 
The disciples concluded that the sleepless night, the 
early walk, and the perplexing scenes through which 
the women had passed, had produced an hallucination 
in their minds. 

Later in the afternoon of the same day, Christ ap- 
peared, in the form of a Jewish traveller, to Luke and 
Cleopas. The name of Cleopas only is given, Luke 
modestly withholding his own, but describing the scene 
with all the minuteness and accuracy of an eye-wit- 
ness. After journeying and conversing together for 
some time, these men represent that their eyes, hitherto 
veiled, were suddenly opened. They knew him, and 
he vanished out of their sight. ‘* And they rose up 
the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found 
the eleven gathered together, and told them what 
things were done by the way.” (Luke xxiv. 13-35.) 

Not far from this time, the apostle Peter, having 
separated himself from the rest of the company, in 
order to obtain some clew to these strange events, or, 
pethaps, to grieve over his own sad fall, was met by 


136 CREDO. 


his Master, who bound up his bleeding heart. After- 
wards they separated. Peter, returning to the com- 
pany of the disciples, made his report. (Luke xxiv. 
34. 1 Cor. xv. 5.)  ‘* All these went,” says Mark, 
‘‘and told it unto the residue.” ‘+ Neither believed 
they them.” (Mark xvi. 13.) The whole account they 
looked upon as a child’s ghost story. 

Before proceeding with the testimony, we pause to 
gather up the evidence, both direct and circumstantial, 
thus far deduced. We note especially these two facts: 
First, that, after this accumulation of testimony from 
Mary and the several other women, from Luke. Cleo- 
pas, and Simon Peter, the great body of the disciples 
were still incredulous. They desired that the facts 
stated might be true, but doubted the possibility. Sec- 
ond, that the rulers of Jerusalem believed in Christ’s 
resurrection sooner than his disciples. ‘* Now when 
they were going,” says Matthew, ‘some of the watch 
came unto the city, and showed unto the chief priests 
all the things that were done. And when they were 
assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, 
they gave large sums of money unto the soldiers, say- 
ing, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole 
him away while we slept. And if this come to the 
governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure 
you. And this saying is commonly reported among 
the Jews until this day.” (Matt. xxviii. 11-15.) 
Thus, while the disciples and friends of Jesus dis- 
believed, the Sanhedrim, believing, were deliberate- 
ly and maliciously fabricating a falsehood for the 
terrified and bribed soldiers. This fact Justin Martyr 
publicly charges upon the Jews of his own day. 


ee eh eT tCS—aS se rh 


. 
, 
; 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 137 


‘You sent,” he says, ‘‘chosen men for the espe- 
cial purpose of circulating this falsehood.” 

Return to the assembly of the disciples. While they 
were still listening to the testimony given, while dis- 
cussing, doubting, and cross-questioning, having barred 
the doors and fastened the windows, ‘for fear of the 
Jews” (John xx: 19), ‘behold, Jesus himself,” says 
Luke, ‘*“‘ stood in the midst of them, and saith unto 
them, Peace be unto you.” (Luke xxiv. 36.) Not a 
door had been opened. Not a window-bolt had been 
loosened. He was before them! So mysterious was 
his coming, that ‘‘ they were terrified and aflrighted, 
and supposed that they had seen a spirit.” (Luke 
xxiv. 37.) ‘And he upbraided them,” says Mark, 
‘for their unbelief and hardness of heart.” (Mark 
xvi. 14.) Luke, a physician, whose attention would 
more naturally be called to the fact, adds, ‘* And he 
said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do 
thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and 
my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; fora 
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his 
hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not 
for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here 
any meat?” (Luke xxiv. 38-42.) And he partook 
of it; not that he must eat to support life, but that he 
might convince them that he was something more than 
a spirit. After this he disappeared, and the company 
of disciples dispersed. ‘‘ But Thomas, one of the 
twelve, called Didymus,” says John, ‘‘ was not with 
them when Jesus came.” (John xx. 24.) And he, we 
are told, could not be prevailed upon to believe that - 
Christ had risen, or that they had seen him. 


138 CREDO. 


Seven days passed, and the disciples were again met, 
and Thomas with them; and to him, on this occasion, 
was granted the most overwhelming evidence that the 
Christ risen was identical with the Christ dead. (John 
xx. 26-31.) The remaining appearances, as given by 
the evangelists, are these: to the disciples by the Lake 
of Tiberius (John xxi. 1-24); to the multitude on a 
mountain in Galilee (Matt. xxviii. 15-17. 1 Cor. xv. 6.) ; 
to the disciples, singly or in company, through a space 
of forty days (Acts i. 3); and, lastly, to the disciples, 
near Jerusalem, on the road to Bethany, at the descent 
of the Mount of Olives. It was on this occasion that 
he unfolded, in their hearing, the prophetic Scriptures, 
and gave them transcendent promises, bidding them 
no longer expect an earthly, but to prepare themselves 
fora heavenly kingdom. And that road, which had 
witnessed his triumphal entry into the sacred city of 
the Jews, then witnessed his triumphal entry into the 
sacred city of God, which is in heaven. (Luke xxiv. 
50,51.) ‘* And it came to pass, while he blessed them, 
he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” 
*¢ And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven,” 
a voice addressed to them these words of mingled con- 
solation and prophecy: ** Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which 
is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then 
returned they unto Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, 
which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.” 
(Acts i.9g-12.) Such is the wonderful story of Christ’s 
resurrection from the dead. He was seen first by Mary 
Magdalene; second, by the other friendly women ; 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 139 


third, by the disciples, journeying to Emmaus; fourth, 
by Simon Peter; fifth, by the ten apostles, and other 
friends ; sixth, by the eleven apostles, and friends ; sev- 
enth, by the apostle on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias ; 
eighth, by the apostles and the multitude on the mount ; 
ninth, by the disciples and friends at his ascension ; 
and we may add a tenth especial appearance granted 
to James (1 Cor. xv. 7); and, lastly, to Paul himself, 
(1 Cor. xv. 8.) The accounts of these events, except- 
ing the one in 1 Corinthians, have come to us from a 
fourfold source. They differ, but not conflict. They 
are an artless and honest narration of facts. The lan- 
guage used is not in the least mystical, the thoughts not 
in the least sublimated. ‘The inventor of the Gos- 
pels,” Rousseau once exclaimed, “if they were invent- 
ed, would have been a greater hero than Christ himself, 
even if all that has been said of him were true.” Dan- 
iel Webster, who possessed a wonderful faculty for 
detecting, both from the substance-matter and manner 
of expression, what was true and false in testimony, 
after examining the statements of the evangelists, was 
so strongly convinced of the truthfulness of the events 
stated, that he believed them, and contemplated the 
preparation of a work on the evidences of Christianity. 
A multiplicity of professional and public duties com- 
pelled him to relinquish the undertaking. What a 
bright and redeeming chapter that might have been in 
Mr. Webster’s brilliant but tarnished life! How human- 
ity is healed by touching the hem of His garment ! 
Not only are the style and manner of the writers 
convincing, but the substance of their testimony is 
also convincing. To be sure, they do not make 


140 CREDO. 


Christ appear very publicly, nor yet exclusively to a 
few. According to their testimony, he disputed no 
more in the temple, attended no more weddings in 
Cana or elsewhere, fed no more the multitude in the 
fields or on the mountains; but he appeared, not to a 
limited number of his disciples in every instance, but 
on one occasion, at least, to a promiscuous assemblage 
of more than five hundred persons. He did not show 
himself to the Sadducees, who denied the possibility 
of the resurrection; for they would have said, ** He is 
not dead,” or, ‘‘ The disciples have stolen him away.” 
He did not appear to the rulers; for they would have 
said, as in the case of Lazarus, ‘* He is raised by Beel- 
zebub, the prince of devils.” He showed himself to 
his friends. He repeated to them his promises. He 
gave them instruction and encouragement, which they 
Were commissioned to hand down to subsequent ages, 
as the solemn yet beneficent benediction and support 
of all his followers. He did not come again in his 
humility. One such appearance was enough. He 
did not come in the splendor and pomp of an earthly 
king. He was neither to establish the theocracy, nor 
suffer defeat at the hands of the Romans. He came 
in a manner more sublime and impressive than either. 
He had the same body, but new endowments. He 
could transport himself instantly from one place to 
another. He was sometimes visible, sometimes invis- 
ible. He bore at one time unmistakable evidences of 
his former condition; at another he appeared as a 
stranger. On one occasion he resembled a common 
gardener, on another a Jewish traveller. He came, 
walked among and conversed with his disciples in an 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I4t 


organized body, but with power ‘to clothe it in his 
accustomed garments and expression, or otherwise. 
He had a body, but not one which was then glorified. 

His appearances differed. At one time he flashed 
before them like a vision of the night, at another as 
the soft shining of the morning. At one time he 
slowly hovered near them, like an appearance from 
another world; again he came as the King of the 
whole earth, sending his ambassadors to all nations and 
kindreds. His appearance to Mary was the most ten- 
der; he spoke and she recognized him. That before the 
Emmaus travellers was the most human; he walked 
with them sixty stadia, until the evening hour; he in- 
terpreted to them the Scriptures, until their hearts 
burned within them. His appearance before the body 
of the disciples was the most composed — calculated to 
relieve their anxiety; that before Thomas the most 
convincing; that on the shores of Tiberias the most 
mysterious; and that on the mountains of Bethany the 
most sublime. What a wonderful diversity in appear- 
ance! how solemnly impressive! All this the inven- 
tion of men? What! were these witnesses, who had 
received testimony at first with such extreme caution, 
deceived? Did these honest-spoken men really fabri- 
cate such unheard-of falsehoods, and publish them to 
the world? Dr. South, after reviewing this class of 
evidence, once exclaimed, ‘“‘A man who will not be- 
lieve the resurrection of Christ, upon a statement of 
these facts, would not believe it if he himself should 
rise from the dead.” The statements of the evangel- 
ists embody the most startling, eternal, and glorious 
truths ever published, or the most audacious, mdcracu- 
¢ous, and monstrous lies ever perpetrated. 


142 CREDO. 


From direct testimony respecting Christ’s resurrec- 
tion we pass to other evidence, noticing, first, — 

The Conduct of the Disciples. — Up to the hour of 
Christ’s death the disciples clung to the fond expecta- 
tion that he had come to restore Israel; they believed 
that he was to throw down the Roman Eagle, and 
trample her proud banners under his feet. This 
thought filled them with enthusiasm. All their hopes 
were now extinguished in the apparently disgraceful 
death of their Leader. ‘‘ He has ended,” said Celsus, 
the earliest, if not a contemporaneous sceptic, — ‘* he 
has ended a miserable life by a wretched death.” 
The disciples were confounded. The entire transac- 
tion was so unaccountable and perplexing that upon 
the arrest of Christ they fled. No ordinary event 
could have rallied them. But in two months from 
that date, on the occasion of another national feast, 
these men were again in Jerusalem. They were in 
the midst of all that had opposed Christ — where the 
faces of the priests, and rulers, fifty days before, had 
been pale with hate, and their hands stained with 
blood. The events of the former Passover were fresh 
in the minds of all. Under circumstances which pre- 
cluded the possibility of practising deception, these 
disciples of Christ, in the presence of a large assem- 
blage of rulers, resident Jews, and foreigners (who had 
been called together by the report noised through the 
city that the Holy Ghost had made his appearance), 
boldly declared that they had seen Christ, and that he 
had risen from the dead. Simon Peter, who, at the 
feast two months before, denied his Master, now stood 
up and addressed the assemblage. His confession 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 143 


‘was not, as formerly, that he did not know the man. 
He did not ask public forgiveness for having caused 
the present disturbance. He did not say that Jesus 
was only a man; that he had deceived the people, 
and was not risen from the dead; but he declared that 
this speaking with tongues which they heard was the 
fulfilment of prophecy. He lifted his voice in a clear 
and fuil declaration of the truths he believed. ‘ Ye 
men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, 
a man approved of God among you, ... ye have 
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, 
- - » whom God hath raised up, having loosed the 
pains of death, because it was not possible that he 
should be holden of it.” (Acts i. 22-24.) What 
had changed this man and his companions? What 
had made of them, in this short space, such bold cham- 
pions of truth? How dared they breathe defiance so 
calmly, in the face of deadly opposition, and expose 
themselves, if false, alike to public death and the 
wrath of Heaven? They had recourse to no clandes- 
tine whispers. They recommended no blind faith. 
They appealed to no unheard-of transactions, but spoke 
of public and well-known events. They provoked 
the people and the world to examine their statements 
and confute them. They referred to the wonders which 
had taken place in the heavens and on the earth, —the 
sun darkened as never before, the moon veiled as 
in blood, the earth quaking to its centre, the stone 
rolled away from the tomb, and the guard fleeing in 
terror. If these things had not thus occurred, if the 
disciples had not been in possession of facts, would 
they, without authority, have silenced men of author- 


144 CREDO. 


ity? Would their simple story, if false, have baffled 
subtlest policy, and their rude speech persuade sooner 
than national learning and rhetoric? Would these 
men, standing upon falsehood, have dared impeach 
a nation, arraign its justice, and charge its rulers with 
the murder of innocence? Does it not look as though 
the disciples believed in their Lord’s resurrection? Had 
he not appeared to them? Had he not removed their 
doubts, comforted their hearts, and implanted within 
them immovable and immortal hopes? Had those forty 
days been less important in their training than had been 
the previous three years of his active life? Was their 
belief the result of a few weeks’ cogitation? Was ita 
mere idea with them, as Renan claims? ‘ The shad- 
ow created by the delicate sensibility of Magdalene?” 
Such stupidity from such a pen seems unpardonable. 
Lhe Conduct of the Rulers and People of Ferusa- 
tem. — If there had not been a public belief respecting 
the facts stated by the apostles on the day in question, 
why did the Jewish rulers fear to arrest them? Why 
did they stand like criminals at the bar of justice, con- 
science-smitten and unable to say why sentence of death 
should not be passed upon them? The city abounded 
in public and detective police, the authorities were alive 
and sensitive to this question. Why so inactive, un- 
less public sentiment and well-known facts overawed 
them? Did they not know that the tomb had been 
secured beyond possibility of robbery? Why so rest- 
less and excited, unless they felt that the *‘ discomforted 
and disembodied spirit of the Jewish religion” was 
wandering about Christ’s grave, calling for another 
guard and seal, the one having been put to flight, the 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 145 


other broken? The rulers and police of Jerusalem 
were terrified: that explains it. What! terrified be- 
cause they had murdered a common malefactor? All 
Jerusalem thrown into an uproar by a random ghost 
story! Offer large sums of money to the Roman sol- 
diets to say that the disciples had stolen him, when 
they had only offered the paltry sum of fifteen dollars 
to Judas, for his betrayal, and at last forced to the hu- 
miliating expedient of accounting for his disappear- 
ance by asserting that a handful of his disciples had 
robbed the graveyard, removing the stone and break- 
ing the seal, in the presence of the best-disciplined 
troops in the world — death being the inevitable pen- 
alty of their sleeping at their post! Surely, “ whom 
the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” 

But the people — why are they alarmed, and why 
so strange their conduct? They repented, and smote 
their breasts; multitudes suddenly professed faith in 
a risen Christ, and became Christians; they departed 
from the city. Their reports through the countries 
were electrical. All writers have noticed the rapid 
spread of Christianity during the first centuries. 

Pliny the Younger, at that time Consul and Gov- 
ernor of Pontus, in a letter to the Emperor Trajan, 
inquiring what course to pursue with the Christians 
under arrest, said, ‘‘ Suspending all judicial proceed- 
ing, 1 have recourse to you for advice. It has 
appeared unto me a matter highly deserving consid- 
eration, especially for the great number of persons 
condemned. There are many, of all ages, and every 
rank, and of both sexes likewise; nor has the conta- 
gion of this superstition seized cities only, but the 

+ 10 


a 


146 CREDO. 


lesser towns also, and the open country. Neverthe- 
less, it seems to me that it may be restrained.” Of 
his own time, Tertullian says, ‘If the laws against 
Christians were enforced, Carthage would be deso- 
late.” Does it not look as though the multitudes at 
Jerusalem had been converted by witnessing some 
strange and inexplicable phenomena? Would they 
otherwise have gone forth from the city like flaming 
torches of God’s truth and Christ’s divinity ? 

Between two and three millions of people were 
assembled in and around Jerusalem at the feast dur- 
ing which Christ was executed. These things had 
not been done in a corner. The events of the trial 
and death of Jesus had become, for some reason, a 
question of universal agitation. As far as the hills 
and the plains of Calvary furnished room, they were 
crowded on the day of the crucifixion with anxious 
spectators. The disciples on the road to Emmaus 
were astonished that even a stranger in the city, one 
there only for a day, had not heard of these events. 
Does it not look as though an hour of awakening 
from the national intoxication and bewilderment, 
which had thrust upon the people this deed, had 
come? 

That night after Christ’s death was a night of 
terror in Jerusalem, and that morning of his resur- 
rection was to the people a morning of terror, and 
of conviction also. Does not the lingering pallor of 
death upon so many countenances, does not that cry 
of despair from the multitude, ‘* Men and brethren, 
what shall we do?” bear appalling and overwhelm- 
ing evidence to the divinity and resurrection of the 


dead Christ? 


; 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 48 


Lhe Institution of the Christian Sabbath. —Satur- 
day is now, as then, the Sabbath of the Jews through- 
out the world; their shops are closed, their Synagogues 
opened. Why do not Christians observe it? Hear 
the fathers of the church. Ignatius, shortly after the 
death of John, Says, ‘* Let every one that loves Christ 
keep holy the Lord’s day, the queen of days, the res- 
urrection day.” Theophilus, about sixty years later, 
says, ‘* Both custom and reason challenge us that we 
honor the Lord’s day, seeing that on that day it was 
that our Lord Jesus completed his resurrection from 
the dead.” Says Clement of Alexandria, thirty years 
later, ‘‘ Christians, according to the command of the 
Gospels, observe the Lord’s day, thereby glorifying the 
resurrection of the Lord.” Was it a small under- 
taking for a few men, without authority or influence, 
without occasion to warrant it, and with no particular 
motive or reason, to begin and accomplish so impor- 
tant a change of days as this? Nay, Bunker Hill 
Monument is a far less enduring witness than the 
Christian Sabbath. — It presents no surer evidence 
that a battle was there fought on the 17th of June, 
1775, between the American and British troops, than 
the existence of the Sabbath is evidence that it 
was instituted in commemoration of our Saviour’s 
resurrection, and would not have been instituted 
Without it. 

Why should his resurrection have ever been thought 
incredible? His life, in many respects, was excep- 
tional. It is true that his birth and parentage, the 
low garb and dim lustre of his earthly career, his 
hunger and thirst at the well, his weary body, tear- 


148 CREDO. 


ful eyes, and sad death, disclose his humanity. But 
his resurrection, that “ power to lay down life and to 
take it again,” discloses as unmistakably the majesty 
of his divine omnipotence. Carlyle at times does not 
venture even to speak the name of this mysterious 
Being. He prefers ‘to meditate upon that sacred 
matter in sacred silence.” Rousseau, Renan, Emer- 
son, and others like them, pronounce Him indefec- 
tible. All men confess that he lived as no other 
being has ever lived. We believe, therefore, though 
he was once dead, as he did not live like other men, 
so he did not lie in the grave like other men. But he 
arose, was seen, and was heard to speak. He bore 
about with him a mysterious body. Afterwards he 
ascended to “the right hand of the glory of God.” 
He is now there, ‘‘the express image of God,” the 
sole and only visible personal manifestation of deity 
that wiil ever greet our eyes. His entire life on earth 
was a part,of another and eternal life. It was the 
visible section of a divine and illuminated orbit, ap- 
pearing at Bethlehem, and disappearing on the Mount 
of Olives. He was the sudden appearing and disap- 
pearing to the world of a brilliant and glorious star, 
which shines in heaven forever and ever. 

But all this is miraculous. True. A miracle is 
possible. To deny it is atheism. If God exists, he 
is a supernatural being. If he is a supernatural 
being, he can act in a supernatural (miraculous) as 
well as in a natural manner. The most stupendous 
of miracles is the resurrection of Christ. Its histori- 
cal evidence is the most overwhelming. It is the 
most sublime of facts. It affords the happiest of 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 149 


hopes. ‘“ Christos aneste, alethos aneste!” Christ 
Zs risen,is risen indeed!” is destined to. become the 
most frequent and fragrant greeting among men, 
gracing their conversation and cheering their lives. 
Christ’s resurrection is the crowning passage of his 
doctrine, the seal of truth upon all he promised, and 
the potent argument to the race that he was not a 
natural, but a supernatural Being. 


‘¢ Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.” Deu- 
teronomy, Vi. 4. : 

‘As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so 
walk ye in him. 

‘For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” 
Colossians ii. 6, 9. 

‘¢ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, 
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” 
Fohn xvi. 5. 

‘‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you, and bring 
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you.” Fohn xiv. 26. 

‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost.” Matthew xxviii. 19. 


“© thou Eternal One! whose presence bright 
All space doth occupy, all motion guide! 
Embracing all, supporting, ruling o’er! 
Being whom we call God, and know no more! 
From the Russian of DERZHAVIN. 


‘‘ Begotten Son, divine Similitude, 
In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud 
Made visible, the Almighty Father shines, 
Whom else no creature can behold! 
Transfused in thee his ample spirit rests.” 
MILTON. 
‘‘ The Spirit of God, 
From heaven descending, dwells in domes of clay; 
In mode far passing human thought, he guides 
Us in such gentle murmurs, that to know 
His heavenly voice we must have done his will.” 
Joun Hey. 
*< In those Three Persons the One God was shown, 
Each First in place, each Last, — not one alone}. 
Of Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, each may be 
First, Second, Third, among the Blessed Three.” 
Kalidasa the Brahman. 
(150) 


Il. 


THE THREE-ONE. 


Y the term ‘ Trinity,” the evangelical church 

means a union in one Godhead of the Father, Son, 
and Spirit. It does not teach that there are three 
persons in one person, if we use in both cases the term 
** person” in one and the same sense. Employing the 
word ‘‘ person” in its ordinary sense, there is but one, 
and there can be but one, personal and manifest agent 
in the Trinity ; employing it in the sense of persona- 
tion, there may be an indefinite number of persons in 
one and the same person. No one has ever believed 
that there are three personal existences in the Trinity, 
and at the same time but one existence of the same kind. 
If our eternal salvation depended upon it, we could 
not believe it. It would be a stupendous make-believe. 
God does not require us to believe anything of this 
kind more than he requires a man‘to believe that the 
communion bread is Christ’s body in fact, rather than 
asymbol of it. If we try to make our fellow-men 
believe such a dogma, we are more like deluded Roman 


Catholics than intelligent Christians. 
(151) 


152 CREDO. 


To no other revealed truth in revelation is more 
prominence given than to the unity and oneness of 
God. The expression ‘‘the Lord is one God,” or its 
equivalent, is iterated time and again. That God has 
no equal is taught in upwards of fifty passages. The 
Divine Unity is no more clearly pronounced throughout 
the material universe than it is throughout the Bible. 
It is the introduction and conclusion of all scientific 
researches. Any other representation contradicts both. 
creation and revelation. Its denial is a proper object 
for the ridicule of every thinking man, and of the dis- 
belief of every Orthodox Christian. Let this, then, be 
our first and necessary conclusion — that Deity,whether 
creating, inspiring, or otherwise manifesting itself, is 
one God; one, and no more. But, as we investigate 
the inspired word, we meet with three distinct person- 
alities. To each of the three, divine ascriptions are 
paid with equal consideration and uniformity. The 
distinctions are represented by the terms ‘ Father,” 
“¢ Son,” and ‘“‘ Holy Ghost,” or ‘‘ Spirit.” From the 
fact of the divine oneness, and of these three distinc- 
tions, has sprung the statement of the doctrine of the 
«¢ Trinity.” In pursuing the discussion, we may illus- 
trate the three distinctions in the Godhead by terms 
familiar to science — Law, Manifestation, and Force. 

The Existence of the Father. — What the Father 
is to the Christian world, Law is to the world of 
science. Not that law is the Father, but it is that 
through which the special manifestation of the Deity, 
called the Father, is made known to us. Law, 
natural and divine, is found everywhere. By it the 
animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms are bound 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 153 


together, controlled, and overruled. The elephant does 
not have the claw of a lion, nor the lion the tusk of 
an elephant. The maple does not bear the fruit of 
the pear, nor the pear the foliage of the pine. Salt 
does not have the crystals of sugar, nor sugar those of 
mica, or quartz, but each its own universal and eternal 
law of development, formation, and crystallization. 
What are these laws? We cannot see them, we can- 
not approach them; we do not know, on natural 
principles, what their cause, nor whence their ground 
of existence. They are hidden in the profoundest mys- 
tery. But they exist on every hand and in every king- 
dom above us, beneath us, before us, and behind us. 
In them we live, and move, and have our being. They 
are as universal as the universe, as eternal as eternity, 
as divine as the Deity. 

Fichte, the most wonderful, and in some respects the 
greatest speculative philosopher Germany ever pro- 
‘duced, taught that this ‘‘law of the universe” is God. 
But law is not God, nor a complete representation of 
God. The laws of the universe of every kind do not 
constitute all that is found in the universe, or all that 
is involved in the term “God.” Aside from law there 
is manifestation, aside from law and manifestation 
there is force still unaccounted for. 

This law-source is no more a complete Godhead 
than a man’s intellect is a complete man without the 
will power which gives him motion, and without the 
visible organism which enables us to see him. To 
represent God thus would be to annihilate force and 
reduce visible creation to a mere idea. This was what 
Fichte boldly did, to give consistency to his system. 


154 CREDO. 


Is not Christian theology more philosophical than 
Fichte in its representation that this ‘‘ zzzversal daw” 
springs from a Being, a personal existence, desig- 
nated by the term ‘‘Father?” The laws are not this 
Being; but may they not emanate from him? and 
through their presence may not his existence be made 
known to us? May not the Father in Christianity and 
the God of other schools be this great universal per- 
sonality lying back of all existence, rising up in a 
kind of sublime, sombre, and silent majesty, a law- 
embodied Deity who sits above all, back of all, over 
all, immovable, immutable, immeasurable, and unap- 
proachable, a smile for the innocent, a consuming fire 
for the guilty? The pantheistic world says, ‘ This is 
my God.” The Christian world says, ‘* This is one, 
but only one form of the divine existence — the In- 
visible Father.” 

Lhe Ministration of the Father. — As there is little 
controversy on the question of the administration of 
God the Father among the various schools of belief, 
we shall not dwell upon this division. It is sufficient 
to say that in him is bound together the universe as a 
unit, in him are harmonized and administered its laws. 
He numbers the hairs of our heads, and notes the fall 
of a sparrow. He rewards the good, and will punish 
the guilty. 

Lhe Logos, or the Christ of God. — What this 
Christ is to the Christian world, created and mani- 
fested nature is to the world of science. Not that 
nature is Christ, but, as in the case of the Father, may 
it not be that, through which the specific manifes- 
tation of the Deity called the ‘Son,’ or word,” is 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 155 


made known to us? All sensible men at present be- 
lieve there is a created universe. They believe that 
a star is a star, and not an idea; that a rock is a 
rock, and not a mere belief. So far as we can judge, 
not a spot in the universe is without this actual or 
possible manifestation. The wings of the morning 
would find it in the uttermost parts of the earth. A 
flight to the heaven of heavens would find it there, and 
a descent into the bottom of the sea would find it 
there. This, then, which we see in the carpeted earth, 
in the rose-bud held in the hand of a delighted child, 
in the grass that nods to the breeze, or is crushed under 
our foot-fall—this which is seen on the mountain, 
in the valley, in the crystal rock, in the man walking 
the street, or hanging upon a cross, — in the sparkling 
stars over our heads, and in the black cloud that rolls 
up in the west, veiling the sun, and bearing in its 
bosom the hidings of his power, — is the Logos mani- 
festing itself, a part of which manifestation is ourselves 
as a product, and in which manifestation we live, and 
move, and have our being. 

The same may be predicated of this principle as of 
law. It is as universal as the universe, eternal in its 
actuality or possibility as eternity, and as divine as the 
Deity. Millions of our fellow-beings have called it 
God, have worshipped it as God. ‘+ Nature is God” 
and ‘* God is nature” must be the theory of all who 
ignore the supernatural. But this manifestation does 
not constitute all that is involved in the term ‘* God,” 
aside from this, are universal law and force. May 
not this manifestation be represented in Christian 
theology by the terms ‘* Divine Logos,” ** The Word,” 


156 CREDO. 


‘**God manifest,’ ‘The Christ of the Universe” ? 
But bear in mind that this divine manifestation in 
nature is not, in essence, the personal Logos; it is 
only a direct emanation from him. It indicates the 
actual existence of him without whom ‘was not 
anything made that was made.” Nor is he the 
Father or the Holy Ghost, any more than the works 
of nature are the laws, or force, of the universe. 
He is not the Godhead any more than the physical 
body of man is the whole man devoid of intellect 
and will; but may he not be, or rather become 
through Christ Jesus, the personal manifestation of 
the Godhead? 

Lhe Ministration and Especial Manifestation of 
the Logos. Anti-Trinitarians represent that the evan- 
gelical church believes in three Gods. This is not a 
true representation. On the contrary, may not its 
belief be fairly set forth in the following statement: 
There is nowhere but one manifestation of the per- 
sonality or individuality of the supreme Godhead; 
and that one is the Second Person in the Trinity, the 
“ Christos,” the ‘* Anointed” representative of the 
three divine personalities? If so, this would not be 
true during his walk on earth merely, but true since the 
morning of eternity. Did he not stand in the midst 
of that first creation of the sons of God, as he after- 
wards stood in the temple of the Jews, the one alto- 
gether lovely, enthroned amid all the attractive graces 
of the Deity, spotless and without blemish? With 
this thought before us, how natural and simple is 
the interpretation of those passages in the opening 
book of the Bible — passages which so forcibly exalt 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 15 7 


the human race. ‘And God said, Let us make man 
in our image, after our likeness. So God created 
man in his own image; in the image of God created 
he him, male and female created he them.” Could 
God have created man in his own image if that image 
had not previously existed? The terms “image” and 
** likeness,” here employed, are definite, not vague 
and imaginary. If it is not a likeness in matter that 
is meant, it must, inevitably, be one in form. If not 
in essence, it must, of necessity, be in semblance. 
Violence is done the Scriptures to make other inter- 
pretations. ‘‘Image” is a word taken from sensible 
things, and denotes likeness in outward form, while 
the materials of which the things are composed are 
different. ‘* Likeness” is a term of more general ap- 
plication, and may indicate resemblance of qualities, 
both external and internal. 

Reference to the original text will not change the 
translation of these words. So that, following the strict 
meaning of the text, God could not have created man 
in his own image, if that image had not previously ex- 
isted. More than this, is it not reasonable to suppose 
that this manifestation was the one in which the Christ 
of God appeared, at first, the one in which he always 
has appeared and always will appear — the sublime 
ideal of the race, the type of perfected strength, beauty, 
and majesty, the only personal manifestation of the 
Father, and the Logos, and the Spirit? Is it the form 
of a bear, or an elephant, that satisfies our ideas of 
the divine manifestation? What form could walk the 
earth as its king, or fill the throne of heaven as its 
judge, with greater fitness than a perfect and glorified 


158 CREDO. 


human manifestation, in the form and person of the 
eternal and exalted Christ? When we speak of 
Christ, then, something more is meant than the man 
human who walked the earth weary, hungry, and 
athirst, who sinned not, and died for us eighteen cen- 
turies ago. There is meant, in addition to this, the 
divine nature within him, which was eternal and in- 
finite; the only definitely manifested form of divine 
existence ever seen by men or angels. He was 
the manifestation of Deity throughout the Old Testa- 
ment dispensation, and throughout all dispensations ; 
throughout the Christian era, and throughout all eras; 
from everlasting to everlasting. Such is the evangel- 
ical view based upon the teaching of the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. Through all the journeyings of the children 
of men, as of the children of Israel, this personality 
is ever present in one form or another — the cloud by 
day, the pillar of fire by night, or the rock from which 
gushes, at every turn of our journey, the waters of 
life. Says the apostle Paul, ‘‘ Moreover, brethren, I 
would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all 
our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed 
through the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual 
meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, 
for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed 
them, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. x. 1, 3, 4.) 
‘‘“Abraham rejoiced to see my day,” said Christ, ‘and 
he saw it and was glad.” Abraham saw his day by 
seeing a specimen of it. He saw the God-man on 
earth. He saw him eat and drink just as the disciples 
did. He talked with him as they talked with him. 
One day, shortly before the taking of Jericho, as 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, } 159 


Joshua was reconnoitring, he saw a man with a 
drawn sword in his hand. So thoroughly real was 
he, that Joshua challenged him, and asked to which 
side he belonged. The man replied, ‘* Nay, but as 
Captain of the Lord’s host am I now come.” Imme- 
diately Joshua fell prostrate. And the Captain of 
the Lord’s host told him to loose his shoes off his feet, 
for the place was holy; then follows the statement, 
“And Fehovah said unto Joshua.” That strange vis- 
itor was called, in the same sentence, ‘* man,” “ Jeho- 
vah,” and the “ Captain of Jehovah’s host.” 

“I saw,” said Isaiah, ‘Jehovah sitting upon a 
throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the 
temple.” Yet John declared that ‘these things 
spake Isaiah of Christ, when he saw his glory, and 
wrote of him.” Ezekiel also saw, on the glorious 
throne, the form of a man of intense effulgence, and 
immediately after added, ‘* This was the appearance 
of the glory of Jehovah.” 

Ascend the mount of transfiguration. Here we 
behold one moment the son of Mary. He was aman 
of sorrows. He was clothed in the ordinary garb of 
flesh and blood. The next moment the fashion of his 
countenance is altered; his face shines like the sun ; 
his raiment is white and glistening like the snow. 
The disguise for a moment is laid aside, and ‘the 
inner glory rushed ont in a flood of splendor.” He is 
the same glorious person before whom-the prophets 
fell as dead men, and from whom Moses hid his face; 
the same who had been present all the while with 
the disciples, but under a guise. Whatever we may 
think of the theory, the Scriptures represent that this 


160 CREDO. 


is the supernatural man, the man from heaven, the 
God-man. This was the very same who descended 
and ascended, and who will come again-at the last 
day to judge the world. 

Is it unreasonable to say that the personage who 
has always occupied the throne of heaven, against 
whom Satan conspired ; the voice that spoke to Moses ; 
the flame, the bush not burnt; the mysterious visitor 
whom Abraham entertained, and to whom he prayed ; 
the angel with whom Jacob wrestled and prevailed, 
gaining the title ‘* Prince ;” the form of the fourth that 
stood in the blazing furnace with the three trusty fol- 
lowers of God, and whose face, the king declared, 
was bright like that of the Son of God; the angel of 
the covenant, the babe born in a manger, the man that 
spake as never man spake, and died upon a cross, is 
the same existence, in every instance,—the same 
Christ of God? 

Fesus of Nazareth.—We cannot pass this general 
division without speaking of Jesus, that special mani- 
festation of, the Logos, which is of so much interest to 
the race of men. The question which has been raised 
respecting him is, whether he were only a legitimate 
descendant of David, or something else and something 
greater. Was he, as we have suggested, a Super- 
natural Man? One need scarcely be told that the 
various schools of philosophy which have risen for 
eighteen hundred years, in opposition to the exalted 
claims of Jesus, are to-day of little account. Their 
representative men have thought that they were to 
shake this foundation of evangelical Christianity. 
Some had the hardihood to say so. But their theories 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 161 


have died into thin air, while this poor man’s phi- 
losophy:still lives. The views advocated by Voltaire 
and Thomas Paine are now rejected by all leading 
sceptics. The theory of Strauss, that Jesus was a 
mythical personage, once so eagerly accepted, is now 
discarded altogether. The Tiibingen school, which 
arose from the dying embers of Hegelanism, once so 
popular, has vanished like a wreath of smoke, while 
the short stay of Jesus has filled the world with the 
deepest commotion, far and near. It is no more the 
world it was before he entered it. He charged its 
very atmosphere with the divine odors of grace and 
beauty. Modern non-belief makes the honest con- 
fession that the words of Jesus, in spite of all oppo- 
sition, have passed through the world like a moral 
earthquake, — are still passing through it, leaving 
nothing standing but God’s truth as he declared it. 
Think of that character, held up, and held out 
to the world, and then, after a_ brief space of 
thirty and three years, by the will of God, dashed in 
pieces like a potter’s vessel. Think of the broken 
fragments of that earthly existence, gathered up into 
a brief history, but containing power sufficient to 
change and purify the life of the whole world, whose 
broken body and bleeding wounds are sacredly com- 7 
memorated by all the civilized nations of earth. Few 
are so radical as not to kneel at his table. Was he 
only a more exalted Plato, a more virtuous Socrates, 
a wiser Confucius, a mere philosopher among  phi- 
losophers, the most disinterested and enlightened of 
teachers, the most patient of sufferers, and the most 
pure of moralists — or something more? Has God be- 
II 


162 CREDO. 


gotten another, a second son like him? Whence the 
force that kindled the marvellous power of his earth- 
ly life? What shall be said of the divine life risen 
from the dead, and still extant? There is a manifest 
growth. The seed is ripening. The fragments of 
the temple, broken in pieces and fallen to the ground, 
are in process of rebuilding. The life of Jesus has 
within a few years penetrated the heart of society 
and public history as never before. The press is 
teeming with his praises. Treatises bearing his 
name upon their title-page, are, and are to be, 
the vital books of the age. It is as if some higher 
and better thought had visited the race; as if some 
new power had broken, or was breaking, in upon us, 
through the life and cross of the Nazarene. The 
world is advancing towards him, slowly, but surely 
and grandly. It is spreading palms in the way of 
this ‘‘ King-of men.” The air already rings with 
hosannas! What! the being who has wrought these 
changes only a ‘benevolent Jewish gentleman”? 
Nonsense! ‘If he were what Carlyle, Renan, and 
others of like belief say he was, he was more than 
they dare tell us. The public now demands of these 
ethical and sceptical teachers to set forth explicitly 
what they mean. They are not definite. Do they 
fear to be? Why pass the question of Christ’s nature 
in painful silence? Why not honestly confess that 
Jesus was Christ? Or is it their creed which ham- 
pers them? Are these great philosophers held within 
the narrow limits of the natural? If so, is not theirs 
a puerile philosophy, which will not allow her devo- 
tees to grapple with a great public question like the 
one under consideration? 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 163 


The world thirsts for a divine Saviour more than 
for a perfect man. A ray of star-light, Only indi- 
cating a better world, cannot Satisfy the soul. A 
mortal rill is not large enough to quench immortal 
thirst. The race wants what those great souls, Soc- 
rates and Plato, panted after —a God-man, one who 
in eternal truthfulness is the highest man, and the 
present Deity. No system of philosophy can stand 
which does not provide or recognize such a one. 
If we reject Him who has come, we cannot expect 
another. 

And has not Jesus done enough to justify the con- 
fession that the Spirit of God, which brooded over 
the waters and infant earth, inspiring the life and 
beauty which now gladden the eye with leaf, and 
rose, and tree, — that the Spirit, which inspires every 
divine thought in the human heart, begetting the di- 
vine life in the soul of every believer, — quickened also 
the life of Christ as no other has been quickened? 
Without such admission, must we not meditate in 
silence over the name, as does Carlyle? Do not 
the life and character of Christ remain an inexpli- 
cable mystery until the doctrine of a divine incarna- 
tion is admitted? 

How charming, how thrilling in truth and beauty, 
is the doctrine of God in Jesus, the Christ! How 
harmonious the Scripture, “I am the first and the 
last: I am he that liveth and was dead; and behold I 

am alive forevermore, and have the keys of hell and 
of death.” (Rev. i. 17, 18.) The four and twenty 
elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and 
worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their 


a 


164 a, CREDO. 


crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, 
O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for 
thou hast. created all things. And they rest not 
day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God 
Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev. 
iv. 10,11.) These ascriptions of praise are paid, not 
to the Father, nor to the Spirit, but to the Christ of 
God. ‘And they sing the song of Moses, the ser- 
vant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 
Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King 
of saints.” ‘And the Lamb shall overcome, . . . for 
he is Lord of lords and King of kings.” (Rev. xv. 3.) 
Do not the above scriptures teach that Jesus, the Christ, 
is the eternal and only personal manifestation of Deity, 
and therefore the proper object of worship? ‘*I say 
unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father, which is in heaven. Philip 
saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffi- 
ceth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long 
time with you, and hast thou not known me, Philip? 
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” 

There is no conflict. The Lord Jesus, laying aside 
his priestly robes, embodies all the glory of the other- 
wise invisible Deity. The rationalistic school desires 
to deify humanity. Why not accept the divine mani- 
festation in the God-man? Are Christians to be called 
idolaters for worshipping the divine one clothed in 
the form of Jesus, by those who claim to see a God 
in every man? Consistency! 

On the other hand, how perfectly the evangelical 
view harmonizes with the wants of every soul! It is 


Tee 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 165 


not the laws of, or the force in, the tree that stands on 
the hill-side, or shades the door-way, which is of chief- 
est interest to us. We may wonder at the laws, and 
feel the absolute necessity of the life force; but the 
tree spreading its leafy tenting over us, the rock cast- 
ing its friendly shadow in a weary land, come nearest 
tous. We may adore the Father, and feel the abso- 
lute need of the Spirit, and should ever pray that 
neither may be absent from us; but it is the manifes- 
tation of the Godhead, as in the visible, protecting 
arm of a father, in the love of a mother beaming in 
the eye and falling from the lips, the personal mani- 
festation of Deity in Jesus Christ, the Supernatural 
Man, which alone, in eternity, can make us feel at 
home. Without the Second Person in the Trinity, 
heaven would be no place for mortals. 

Lhe Existence of the Spirit.—What force is to 
science, the Holy Spirit is to the Christian world. 
As a principle of science, force or activity is in 
everything. It crystallizes the mineral; it is the life 
of the tree; it bears the cloud through the sky ; it 
is above and below us; in it we live, and move, and 
have our being; like the principle of law, it is uni- 
versal as the universe, eternal as eternity, divine as 
divinity. How silently and gently the full moon 
moves through the heavens! yet it has more than 
three times the speed of the swiftest locomotive driven 
by the hand of a reckless engineer. Its weight ex- 
ceeds by many tons three millions of the largest loco- 
motives ever yet constructed. Since the reading of 
this chapter was commenced, the earth has passed 
through a space something more than thirty thousand 


166 CREDO. 


miles. It has been freighted with twelve hundred 
million inhabitants, with mountains, oceans, vast for- 
ests, and solid continents. The planet Jupiter is 
fourteen hundred times larger than this earth; yet it 
moves through space five hundred miles per minute 
—sixty times faster than the swiftest cannon-ball. 
How great! how vast! how swift! 

But the moon, the earth, Jupiter, every planet of 
the planetary system, and every star of the stellar 
universe, are acted upon by a moving and controlling 
force, —a will power, — which, as the omnipresent, 
invisible spirit of force, resides in a personality. It is 
that personality which ‘ binds the sweet influence of 
the Pleiades, and loosens the bands of Orion, which 
bringeth forth Mazzaroth in his season, and guides 
Arcturus with his sons.” 

‘Force, force, everywhere force!” exclaimed Car- 
lyle. ‘¢Illimitable whirlwind of force, which envel- 
ops us; everlasting whirlwind, high as immensity, 
old as eternity — what is it?” Mr. Carlyle stopped, 
smiled, and then doubtfully gave forth his answer: 
‘‘It is Almighty God!” Is this the oz/y personation 
of Almighty God? This is eternal, self-existent, uni- 
versal, immeasurable, unapproachable. It is the force 
element of the universe; it is the sanctifier of human 
hearts; it is the energizer of all life; it is the causa- 
tion which gives motion among the stars and among 
the sons of men; the tremulous gleaming to the light- 
nings when they play across the sky, and the gentle 
whisper to the soul of man that tells him of duty and 
of God; it is that power which brooded upon the face 
of the waters six thousand years ago; it is that per- 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 167 


sonality which breathed upon the abyss whence came 
animal and vegetable life; the same which overshad- 
owed the virgin mother and inspired the life of the 
only divine being that has ever walked the earth; it 
is the spirit-power which now strives with all men, 
that it may beget in their hearts the divine life; it is 
as invisible as the fitful summer breeze that bloweth 
where it listeth; it is one of the personalities of the 
Deity, the Third Person in the Christian Trinity — the 
Holy Ghost. 

The especial Ministration of the Spirit. —We 
may have been surprised that so little prominence is 
given to the personality of the Spirit in the New Tes- 
tament writings. But this accords exactly with the 
statement of Christ. ‘* Howbeit,” he says, ‘ when 
he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into 
all truth; for Ze shall not speak of himself.” 

In studying the history of the race, however, we 
cannot have failed to discover certain great and sud- 
den movements of mind and men, forward and up- 
ward, of whose cause science could not give us the 
slightest clew. We have been compelled to look for 
an agency back of men, in the divine, pure, and 
direct. This is true of all moral and social, as well 
as of all religious reforms. Emerson wisely says, 
‘** The religions we call false were once true.” 

An important question for us to settle is, whether 
or not the moving cause, in all things good, exists in- 
dependent of the divine? — not the divine in man, but 
above man, in the invisible and supernatural. Re- 
move this divine influence altogether, and it would be 
to the moral world like extinguishing the sun from the 


168 CREDO. 


natural heavens. Men henceforth would grope and 
die; freedom would become slavery, and charity 
selfishness: few, if any, who are religious, would re- 
main such, none would henceforth become such. In 
fine, every right movement among men is entirely 
embosomed in this divine cause. The radical school 
admit this of the divine zz man; but is it not true of 
the divine adove man, working in and through man? 

The present is a dispensation entirely of the Spirit. 
If men reach the divine, or if they are at all affected 
by it, it must be, therefore, exclusively through the 
Holy Ghost—the divinity of force. Science is at 
present reducing all existing phenomena to the action 
of force and the correlation of forces. It is uncon- 
sciously indorsing the theory of the Christian church. 

Let us be more specific. Are there not some move- 
ments which cannot possibly be accounted for through 
the agency of the divine in man? Take, for illustra- 
tion, the great religious reforms and revivals of the 
world. Luther and Zwingle seem to stand in the 
forefront of the German and Swiss Reformations as 
the moving cause; but do we not feel, and are we not 
willing to admit, — unless we have an opposite theory 
to defend,—that the veaZ cause, the cause which 
moved those men, was an outward force, above ‘the 
human, which had been acting upon the public mind, 
and, having, produced its work in that mind, sent 
Luther and Zwingle to give the alarm notes to Ger- 


many, Switzerland, and the world? Or shall we 


insist upon it that a clam and a jelly-fish have a desire 
to preach the Gospel, and will work up to it in time? 
Theodore Parker, in a sermon delivered in Music 


; 
; 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 169 


Hall, Boston, entitled ‘“‘ The Revival of Religion 
which we need,” —which was indorsed by the learn- 
ed and influential society to which he preached, — 
after condemning the popular notion of a revival, 
said, ‘‘ This revival that we need will not come all at 
once, — zof as the lightning shineth forth from the 
east even to the west, — not thus, but as the morning 
comes — little by little.” Mr. Parker was then study- 
ing natural and existing causes. His reasoning was 
without flaw. Natural causes could produce no other 
than the revival he desired, and felt we needed. The 
revival that follows natural causes must, of necessity, 
come step by step, little by little, — the gentle dawn- 
ing of a summer’s morning, the swelling of a bud, the 
opening of a flower; and so, through natural evolutions 
and agents, we must pass to the millennium, after a 
thousand or ten thousand years of development. 

Such is the theory of this eminent scholar and bril- 
liant writer, and of the entire school which follows 
him. But will their theory produce the revival that 
swept over the country just after the close of the re- 
bellion? Did that come slowly, little by little, step 
_by step? Did it come from long-continued peace, from 
the faithful adherence to industrial pursuits and vir- 
tuous living? Was it the swelling of the bud, the 
gradual unfolding of a flower, the painting of a rosy 
morning on the eastern sky? Nay, rather out of the 
darkness of five years of war and blood did that 
flower bloom. It came like the coming of the Son 
of man; it was like the gleaming of lightning under 
a darkened sky; it swept from east to west, from 
north to south, until the cry for salvation was heard 


170 ; CREDO. 
« 


in every city and town. Was the cause natural? 
Nay, supernatural; and there was witnessed on earth 
the truth before revealed —‘‘ The kingdom of God 
cometh not by observation.” It came then as it 
always comes—through the agency of a potent and 
active personation of the divine; that personality 
which is the tie between the finite and the infinite, 
between God and man, between the soul and the 
right; the loss of whose hold upon the world would 
be the loss of everything lofty and good, and the loss 
of whose hold upon the soul of man would be its in- 
evitable and eternal ruin. 

Review the positions already taken: We have 
discovered certain principles of law in the universe, 
which are of themselves invisible, universal, and eter- 
nal. As Trinitarians, we analyze and recognize in 
them a specific source from which all law emanates, 
and denominate the cause the. First Person in the Trini- 
ty, the Father, who finds his only personal and visi- 
ble manifestation in the divine Christ. We also have 
discovered that there is, on every hand, a visible mani- 
festation of unseen principles. Natural science is 
pleased, goes into ecstasies over every department, 
but calls it all the work of nature. As Trinitarians, 
we go deeper, and recognize the cause of the works 
of nature, and regard it as divine. It is universal and 
eternal in one form or another. It is the expression 
of the Second Person in the Trinity. Or, employing 
the term which is found in the confession of the apos- 
tle Peter, it is ‘the Christ of God ” — the only visible 
personal manifestation of the Logos. As Trinitarians, 
we also claim that Jesus of Nazareth is the only in- 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I 2 I 


stance in which the Christ of God, or the Logos, 
has ever manifested himself in an incarnation, in a 
birth, and in a growth from childhood to manhood. 
This divine product, we claim, is the Supernatural 
Man. 

We have also discovered certain principles of force 
in the universe which are also invisible, universal, and 
eternal. Natural science simply says these are the 
forces of gravitation, of cohesion, of life, and the like. 
As Trinitarians, we recognize in them a specific, 
direct, and personal cause back of the phenomena. 
These emanations spring from the Third Person of 
the Trinity, called the Holy Spirit, which is the person 
who speaks not only in the loudest thunders of the 
sky, but to the soul of man in accents tender as those 
of a mother’s love. Like the Father, and the Logos, 
he finds his only visible personal manifestation in the 
central figure —the Second Person, or the Christ of 
God. 

When we enumerate these three principles, and unite 
them in one, have we not reached the end of the line 
in all philosophy, in all nature, in all things in heaven 
and earth? Are not the conditions of the universe 
such, that there can be no perfect Deity without a 
Trinity? There is law, there is force, there is mani- 
festation. Are not these three harmonionsly united? 
So also may not the three distinct personalities lying 
back of these phenomena of nature be united in one 
and in but one personal manifestation? 

Consider any one of these principles alone, or any 
two separate from the third, and we shall easily discov- 
er how far short of the true idea of God would be such 


172 CREDO. 


an existence, or combination. On the hypothesis we 
have assumed, if there were only the Father in the 
universe, there would be that personality from which 
law emanates: he would be self-existent, eternal, om- 
nipotent, omnipresent; but there would be no life, no 
force, no manifestation of that essence. Law would 
exist, but it would be a universal statute-book, closed 
and sealed forever to the eyes of men and angels. If 
the Holy Ghost only existed, there would be illimita- 
ble force on every hand — energy, activity, tempest, 
blackness, confusion. The personality back of this 
force element would be, like the Father, eternal, self- 
existent, omnipotent, omnipresent, but would exist 
without order, because without law, and without 
form, because without the element of manifestation. 
Again: If the Logos only existed, there would be 
mere manifestation, — more properly, perhaps, the 
source of manifestation, — without life and without 
Specific form or beauty. Still, as a source of mani- 
festation, he would be self-existent, omnipotent, omni- 
present. Unite any two of these elements, omitting 
the third, and there can be no perfect Deity. Unite 
the Father and Spirit, for instance, and there would 
be law and force, but not an object in the universe 
appearing to the eye —no star, no solid ground, no 
tree, no flesh and blood —a creation only of ideas, — 
the God and universe of Fichte. Or, uniting the 
Father and the Son, there would result law and mani- 
festation, but no life or activity ; a tree full of leaves 
and fruit, but without life and growth. Everything 
would be perfect in form, but lifeless; a beautiful 
corpse, a petrified universe of beauty and grandeur, 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I 73 


silent mountains, and a cemetery filled with magnifi- 
cent and enchanting statuary. 

Uniting the Logos and the Spirit, there would be 
force and manifestation, but no law, no order. It 
would be infinite powers flashing and thundering 
through the skies, without design or purpose; blind 
force, blind fate, blind everything everywhere, — the 
God and creation of Thomas Carlyle. But let there 
be the union of these three: let the Father be pres- 
ent, and infuse order into the universe; let the Logos 
speak the light and the works of nature into being; 
let the Holy Ghost breathe upon the scene; let Christ 
Jesus occupy the throne, and afterwards appear on 
earth, and be from first to last the only personal mani- 
festation of the three personalities, and there would 
spring into existence a world of beauty; there would 
be a perfect man, a garden of Eden, a divine voice, 
and Jesus of Nazareth healing the sick and preaching 
to the people. 

We think we do not misrepresent the Trinitarian 
when we say that he believes that the Father, though 
divine, infinite, and properly called God, is not a 
complete Deity; that the Logos, though divine, in- 
finite, and properly called God, is not a complete 
Deity; and that the Holy Ghost, or Spirit, though 
divine, and infinite, and properly called God, is not 
a complete Deity; but that these three united, and 
appearing in one divine personal manifestation, are 
a complete Deity, and constitute the Trinity. 

The voice which comes back from heaven and earth, 
from sea and air, from the word of men and the word 
of God, declares that there is only one God; but there 


174 CREDO. 


is also another voice which proclaims, with equal em- 
phasis, that there are three distinctions, or persona- 
tions, in all things. The trinity of these forces is the 
harmonious note of the universe. They are not one 
first, and three afterwards, but one and three from the 
start. The correlation of divine and infinite law, 
divine and infinite force, divine and infinite source 
of manifestation, can produce a material universe. 
-It cannot be produced without such correlation. 

When the first star sprang forth from the hand of 
God, there was then the evidence of a Trinity which 
had no beginning,—a Trinity as the source of law, 
the source of manifestation, and the source of force, 
_-—— harmonized and centralized in one manifested per- 
sonality. 

The doctrine, or rather the fact, of the Trinity is not 
merely a dogma of the church. It existed long be- 
fore it was stated in the creeds of the church, long 
before the chtrch existed, long before the birth of 
Jesus in Bethlehem, and long before the creation of 
either the earth or the universe. Deity cannot change 
these relations without dethroning itself. It is nota 
matter of wonder that the great masters of philoso- 
phy, Kalidasa, Socrates, Plato, and Hegel, Bacon, 
Locke, Newton, and Leibnitz, were Trinitarians. As 
men profound in science, they-could not be other- 
wise. 

We may understand the subject but imperfectly 
while in this world. We are in one of the lower 
regions. The metropolis and royal seat of learning 
and theology are above and beyond. But these 
suburbs will ever be dear to us as believers, be- 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I 75 


cause we have here received our preliminary educa- 
tion. They will ever be sacred to us, and to the 
heart of the universe, because they have been the 
birthplace and home of that development of the Tri- 
One which we call the Supernatural Man. 


*¢ Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 
Corinthians xi. 14. 


“‘ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to pre- 
sent themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among 
them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? 
Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and 
fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Sob 
is 6; 7. 


“‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, 
as a eos lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may de- 
vour.” 1 Petervy. 8. " 


‘And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall 
from heaven.” Luke x. 18. 


‘* Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. 
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea; for the 
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he 
knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Revelation xii. 12. 


‘* Thus free, the devil chose to disobey 
The will of God, and was thrown out from heaven.” 
POLLOK. 


“The Christian Religion puts the Christian Devil above 
the Creator.” THOMAS PAINE. 


“Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked 
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant 
Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven.” 
MILTON, 


(176) 


If. 


SATAN. 


A Patek theory of an evil spiritual agency, outside 
and independent of humanity, has had a place 
among the doctrines of the church ever since its for- 
mation, and ought to have had a practical bearing 
upon all its theories of sin and virtue, of religious life, 
character, and development. It is a doctrine, how- 
ever, which has received so little fair investigation, 
that the ideas of poets have been mistaken for the 
truths of revelation: the Paradise Lost has been sub- 
stituted for the book of Job, the poems of Montgom- 
ery for the teachings of Christ, and the observations 
of Southey for the Epistles of Peter. Since the ex- 
treme views held by Luther and the Catholics of his 
time, the theme has been rarely mentioned, with any 
degree of seriousness, either by sceptics or believers. 
Men have played with the subject much as boys do 
with the football, the ball serving only for the sport 
and the game. 

But if Satan’s existence and influence are realities, 


if they are matters of revelation or experience, if we 
M4 p 
12 (177) 


178 CREDO. 


are really involved, and doomed for the present to 
contend with this enemy of the race, and to meet, in 
one form or another, his cunning assaults, we ought 
to know it, and the facts should be stated to the world, 
not carelessly or jocosely, but soberly and fairly. 

We shall probably be met on the threshold of the 
discussion by those who will remind us that the sub- 
ject is involved in such mystery that it had better be 
passed in silence. We admit that mystery envelops 
it. The realm and field of Satan’s action are not the 
seen, but the unseen. ‘The facts of his existence are 
not comprised in ordinary history, but touch a range 
which is unexplored and unknown. So many were 
the difficulties hanging about the subject, so great the 
liability of its perversion, and the probability of a mis- 
understanding. or misconception of it, in the time 
of our Saviour, that he taught concerning the devil, 
never in public, but only in the presence of his dis- 
ciples. Silence is no longer necessary. 

The danger of the present age is not from supersti- 
tion, but from scepticism. While every question of 
religious faith and practice is freely discussed at the 
fireside, in the smoking-car, and place of business, by 
all classes of people; while the public mind is so un- 
settled on many of the vital questions of ethics and 
religion; while infidelity turns itself from one doc- 
trine to another, seeking, by argument and assertion, 
to overthrow revealed religion, —the Christian public 
cannot keep silent if it would. Reasons for a partic- 
ular faith must be given which are both biblical and 
rational. Whatever may be the difficulties enshroud- 
ing the particular doctrine under discussion, or any 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. I 79 


other, they must be met. Men must and will know 
where they stand. The Christian church, in this age 
as never before, must distinguish between fable and 
fact. It must establish its faith, not upon tradition, 
but upon revelation. It must not conceal its doc- 
trines in a nook or corner of the house, but place 
them as a candle upon a candlestick, that they may 
give light to all the household. 

In developing the subject, this twofold inquiry 
claims our attention: What are the teachings of reve- 
lation respecting Satan? and, Are its teachings such 
as commend themselves to the rational convictions 
of mankind? 

Satan’s Personality. — There is a large class of 
men, both within and without the church, who often 
speak and reason about the devil, but who seem to 
think he is only a fanciful personification, or repre- 
sentation — a figure, a type, or something else, of szz- 
ful principles. They have reduced him to a mere 
abstraction. The evils of the world and misfortunes 
of life they attribute in no way to Satanic influence, — 
to no outside pressure or temptation whatever, — but 
solely to the depravity or the irregularities of human 
nature. Revelation, however, states the case other- 
wise. It varies not in a single instance from present- 
ing Satan as a real person, having power on earth, 
and to be feared among men. The different names 
by which he has been designated in the Scriptures 
are suggestive of his nature and personality. The 
term ‘** Devz/,” for instance, which in the Greek means 
‘the traducer, the calumniator,” and in English, the 
enemy of mankind, implies personality. 


180 CREDO. 


The same is true of the term ‘* Sataz,” which means 
an adversary, or a personal foe of the race. Of simi- 
lar import are the Greek term ‘‘ Apollyon,” and the 
Hebrew ‘‘ Abaddon,” by which he is sometimes desig- 
nated, which means an evil angel, or the angel cf the 
bottomless pit. The forms of expression, as well as 
the particular words employed, suggest the same idea. 
He is always referred to in the singular number. 
More than twoscore times is he called ‘* Satan,” a 
term which is never employed in the plural number. 
Upwards of fifty times he is called ‘** The Devil,” inva- 
riably in connections requiring the singular number. 
He is called ‘The Prince” and ‘* The God of this 
world,” ‘* A roaring lion,” one that ‘* Sinneth from the 
beginning,” ‘* Beelzebub,” ‘+ Accuser,” *‘ Belial,” ‘* De- 
ceiver,” ** Dragon,”: *$ Liar,’”’.“* Leviathan,” ‘* Lucifer,” 
‘Murderer,’ is' Serpent, '°yTormentor.% ¢: hnesewess 
pressions imply, beyond question, actual and individ- 
ual personality. 

If the Bible referred to Satan only under one class 
of circumstances, if it employed but one term, and that 
an abstract one, we might then regard his existence 
as only imaginary. But the frequent allusions to 
him, direct and indirect, —the great variety of cir- 
cumstances under which he has been mentioned by 
inspired poet, historian, and prophet, by the disciples, 
and the Lord Jesus himself, — compel us to adopt an 
opposite conclusion. Christ was entirely mistaken, 
or there is a supernatural spirit of evil. The wilder- 
ness of Judea and the Apocalypse are scenes of actual 
presence, and displays of actual power. The daring 
and warlike imagery of the Scriptures, which repre- 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. ISI 


sents God and Satan as sovereigns of hostile empires, 
means something. ‘* The power of Satan,” ‘The 
power of darkness,” ‘‘ The Prince of the power of the 
air,” these are no fictions of distempered brains. 
There is no mysticism here. These are conceptions 
of terrible meaning to minds which felt the antago- 
nism of literal and living forces which comprehend- 
ed the ideas of loyalty and disloyalty, of life and death. 
The doctrine of Satan’s personality pervades revela- 
tion. The body of it stands or falls with its admission 
or rejection. The doctrine in this respect is vital. 
No evangelical Christian can by any means ignore it. 
It is one of the constructive ideas of the inspired word. 
We can get rid of it only by rejecting the system of 
revelation in which it appears, everywhere present, 
everywhere consistent with free agency and existing 
evil, and everywhere uttering its warnings to be sober 
and vigilant. 

Satan’s Power.— Sceptics have often asserted that 
the “¢ Christian’s Devil,” as represented by the church, 
possesses more power and influence than God himself. 
It is true that great prominence has been given to the 
woe Satan has occasioned on earth. True also that the 
Scriptures represent him as a being of terrible energy. 
It is this that gives point to their warnings against him. 
In this respect revelation is rational and consistent with 
itself. It may be true that the potency of the Evil One 
was not greatly diminished by his fall. Evil men 
exert as powerful influence as good men. We all 
feel that the strength of human nature, will, and influ- 
ence remains in terrible force, though men are wofully 
fallen and sadly depraved. On this principle, in power 


182 CREDO. 


of will, in energy of character, Satan may be as un- 
checked and mighty to-day as when he bore the lights 
through heaven; though it is true that the tendency 
of his course, in the long run, is to chains and fire. 
Great intellectual power, great activity, and great 
energy must certainly be predicated of him if he 
is a fallen angel, and are certainly attributed to him 
throughout revelation. Our own feelings, at times, 
suggest the same spiritual activity and energy. Who 
has not felt it when chafed and detained by some pend- 
ing or impending emergency? Who is so sluggish as 
never to have felt that if he could break away from 
‘this flesh and blood that cramps him, he could then 
reach the mighty aspirations of the earnest, panting 
soul within? The physical body diminishes power ; it 
does not increase it in a single instance. ‘It is sown 
in weakness,” because it is physical; ‘‘ it is raised in 
power,” because it is spiritual. Evil spirits, which 
are fallen angels, must from necessity possess great 
power and influence. Plato, and after him his fol- 
lowers, taught that the devil and his attendants were 
the governors,and lords of men, as men are of cattle. 
Thucydides and Livy, hoping to avert evil and secure 
good, worshipped them. Judging, therefore, from 
the forcible language employed in the Scriptures, 
from the nature of spiritual power, and from the 
observations and teachings of philosophers, it is not 
surprising that the impression has gone forth that the 
control of the universe is about equally divided between 
God and the devil. But the Scriptures nowhere 
indulge such an idea. They everywhere assert, by 
word and type, that Satan’s government, though 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 183 


powerful and aggressive, exists only by permission, both 
as to extent and duration, —that it is estzre/y under 
the control of the Almighty; so much so, that one 
word from his lips would banish Satan forever from 
the earth. He could not strike another blow, destroy 
another victim, or deceive another heart, were God to 
say, “* Thou shalt not!” Revelation represents that 
he fell from his first estate, that he will be banished 
from the earth, and that his kingdom, which has had 
such control, will end anon in total ruin. Does not 
the cause of truth hope for, nay, sigh for, the time to 
come when the inspired and sublime prophecies re- 
specting him shall be fulfilled, and when this leader 
and his followers shall be tormented with conscious 
defeat and biting remorse, day and night, forever and 
ever? 

Satan’s supposed Ubiquity. —It is sometimes 
charged upon evangelical Christians that they believe 
and teach that the devil possesses the divine attribute 
of omnipresence. There may be some occasion for 
this charge, but it can have arisen only from careless 
phraseology on the part of Christians, or from a neg- 
ligent interpretation of Scripture. The Bible, it is 
true, represents Satan as a being whose baleful influ- 
ence is everywhere felt, but it nowhere speaks of 
him as personally ever and everywhere present. 
On the contrary, it always speaks of him as a moving 
personality, ever on the move from place to place, 
which precludes the idea of omnipresence. He is 
represented as ‘going up and down the earth,” as 
‘‘ soing to and fro in the earth,” as ‘* coming to,” and 
‘‘ooing from,” Christ and humanity. There is no 


184 CREDO. 


deviation from this thought, as in case of the Deity, 
The Scriptures attribute omnipresence to but one, that 
is, God. Revelation does, however, directly and in- 
directly predicate the same characteristics respecting 
Satan’s activity as respecting his power. They are 
such as adorn a spiritual existence. One of his names 
was “‘ Lucifer,” “ the light-bringer” (or bearer) of the 
primeval universe. He isa fallen spirit, but he retains 
the activity of an angel. Did he move no faster than 
light, he could go four times round the earth and back 
again in one second. He could strike his blow, sow 
his seed, and Jeave it everywhere in his trail to germi- 
nate and ripen. Without doubt he can move with 
much greater rapidity than this even. Spirit can 
move like thought, and compass infinite distance, and 
accomplish a world of evil in the least duration of 
time. 

In addition to this, revelation teaches that Satan’s 
government and kingdom are representative. In this 
respect it is a model government. In league with him, 
in unity of purpose, one and inseparable, are all dis- 
loyal spirits in'the world and universe. The devil can 
thus have his agents in all places at the same time. 
It is his great number of powerful and active accom- 
plices which enables him to do a work that, appar- 
ently, requires his constant and personal presence 
everywhere. Though it is true that through his agents 
no one has escaped his notice and influence, still, in 
point of fact, personally, he may never have visited 
half the inhabitants of the globe. He is, however, in 
universal and constant communication. He is the 
central telegraph operator. He sends his despatches 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 185 


along the whole line. He himself is only present 
where the lines converge, where great interests are at 
stake, as at the headquarters of the army. He gives 
his orders, and the work goes on as well as if he were 
personally present. Without thus distinguishing Satan 
from his emissaries, it is perhaps not a matter of sur- 
prise that he has been represented as everywhere 
present. In this restricted and qualified sense he zs 
omnipresent. He is the commander-in-chief in his 
camp, fighting a dozen battles the same hour. Napo- 
leon, while in the palace of the Tuileries, was said to 
be at work in Portugal, Belgium, and France at the 
same moment. Over the tomb of Charles V. is en- 
graved, ** Dominator of Europe, Asia, and America,” 
though he had personally seen only a part of Europe. 
It is by this representative scheme that Satan is 
enabled to rule his empire and carry on his kingdom. 

This rebel angel chief moved and stood first because 
he was first. He still holds his position among his 
confederates, because he is above them all, and is the 
most powerful and active being God ever created. 

Those who attend him are likewise active, powerful, 
sinning, suffering, miserable, yet persistent and obedi- 
ent to their leader. Under his direction they are, 
doubtless, everywhere present. 

Satan’s Moral Character.— As Satan has been 
represented to us in the works of poets, he is a being 
to be admired and commiserated, rather than de- 
spised. Grandeur and sublimity have been thrown 
about him, in place of the stains of crime and _ sin. 
Mr. Macaulay, in criticising the poem of Montgomery 
entitled ‘* Satan,” says, “The poet, with the excep: 


186 CREDO. 


tion of locomotion, has failed to represent a single 
Satanic quality. We have yet to learn,” he continues, 
‘‘that Satan is a respectable and pious gentleman, 
and we would candidly advise Mr. Montgomery to 
omit or alter about one hundred lines, and republish 
his volume under the name of Gabriel.” ‘+ Satan,” 
says Carlyle, “‘was Byron’s grand exemplar, the 
hero of his poetry, and the model, apparently, of his 
conduct.” Lamb, in one of his letters, passes the 
following very just criticism upon Southey: ‘* You 
have all your life been making a jest of the devil: you 
have flattered him in prose; you have chanted him in 
goodly odes. You have been his jester, volunteer 
laureat, and self-elected court poet to Beelzebub.” Mil- 
ton is chargeable, to some extent, with the same mis- 
take. Every critical student of the Bible must have 
felt that the representation is entirely wrong which 
presents to the world such a grand and majestic Satan. 
A criminal, however great and daring, powerful 
and active, is not a majestic man, is not a grand or 
great hero; on the contrary, he is no man or hero at 
all. Satan is a criminal, and any other representation 
is incorrect. No other can in any way be derived 
from the Scriptures. They leave but one impression, 
and that is this: Satan is a being of supreme mean- 
ness, vile as the vilest, basest of the base, and heartless 
as a stone. His breath is poison. His touch is death. 
Such are the teachings of revelation respecting the 
personality, power, ubiquity, or activity, confederation 
and moral character of Satan. Let us now inquire 
if these representations commend themselves to the 
rational convictions and experience of humanity. 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 187 


Few observers of men and society will deny that 
there are certain phenomena in the world for which it 
is exceedingly difficult to account, except on the sup- 
position of an unseen and evil cause, or agency, pro- 
ducing them. It was no other than a rational obser- 
vation of facts which led the ancient philosophers to 
teach that every man has two spirits attending him, 
one good, the other bad. An evil personal existence, 
in the judgment of Plato and his followers, could alone 
explain the evil phenomena of the world. Those 
rugged philosophers who grappled so resolutely with 
existing facts felt there were beings whose forms were 
hidden from mortal eyes, but whose impressions were 
plainly visible as they laid their shadowy hands upon 
those of their fellow-men who had gone farthest into 
rebellion. They felt that the horrid suggestions of 
crime, which often suddenly, and without any apparent 
cause, hurl men into perdition, could not be causeless, 
but were the instigations of this corrupt enemy of the 
race. They did not believe that the spirit of decep- 
tion which had destroyed whole nations, the spirit of 
malignity which sometimes possesses mankind to an 
alarming extent, the spirit of selfishness, of superstition, 
of crime, of out-breaking sin, of blasphemy, of cruelty, 
existed independent of an intelligent cause of some 
kind, somewhere. They assigned one, in substance 
the same as that of the Scriptures. Can we do better? 

A. baleful shadow overhangs the earth. It appalls 
us. On every hand we see it, and in a multitude of 
forms. What is our theory of its origin? There isa 
great rebellion in the universe; a rebellion which has 
the appearance of having been originated, not by 


188 CREDO. 


chance, but by genius; not by the genius of evil float- 
ing about in the air unimpersonated, but by the genius 
of a powerful and active evil spirit, in confederation 
with a legion like himself. This we say is the appear- 
ance of the present rebellion. Let the rationalistic 
philosophers of the nineteenth century account for it. 

It is a curious fact that those people who reject the 
doctrine of a personal devil with the greatest vehe- 
mence, are also the people who are ever insisting that 
men are inherently good, and not bad. ‘There is no 
Satan except what is in man,” they say, ‘¢ and there is 
none in man.” But there is sin, there is guilt. Men 
hate God, and say harder things against him than they 
do against the devil. Two kingdoms surround us. It 
is of no use to mince the subject of evil in the world. 
It exists, a vast amount of it. It is in every walk and 
work of life, in every profession and in every busi- 
ness. ‘The man who has not seen it is a blind man. 
The question is this: Did all the evil of the world, 
all this gigantic rebellion, originate in nothing? Is it a 
causeless product of the atmosphere, or the soil? 
Revelation gives an adequate cause for it: can we do 
better? What if, by argument, sophistry, or assertion, 
we could succeed in banishing from our theories and 
from the world the Satan of the Bible? Should we not 
still have a world full of mysterious and evil phenomena 
which require explanation, and which can receive it 
only upon the ground of a personal, powerful, and 
active spiritual agency? Bad men exist: why not bad 
spirits? why not devils? 

Is one more unaccountable than the other? Ts it 
not, in the light of a rational observation of existing 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 189 


facts, far more unreasonable to deny the existence of 
Satan than it is to acknowledge it? Does not the doc- 
trine remove, by far, more difficulties than it imposes? 
Looking at men as they are, and the world as it is, are 
not silence, or the devil, our only alternatives? 
Phenomena of Evil in Individual Experience. — 
We find, upon self-inspection, that our temptations, 
though manifold and enigmatical, evidently arise from 
three distinct sources, and are of three distinct kinds. 
There are temptations from the world: all know what 
they are, and have experienced them. There are also 
temptations from the flesh. Between the two classes 
we can easily distinguish. There is also a third class, 
which, upon strict analysis, appears to differ entirely 
from those of the world and the flesh. Who has not 
been startled at times with those evil suggestions which 
flash into the soul without apparent cause or con- 
nection, let fly against us like burning arrows from 
an unseen hand. They are “fiery darts,’ as the 
apostle forcibly calls them. Good men have confessed 
that without the slightest reason, and from no recog- 
nized agency, they have felt of a sudden an impulse to 
commit the most horrid crimes ever perpetrated. 
They would tempt and ruin some victim, strike some 
fatal blow, or leap from some precipice upon the rocks, 
or into the sea. How mortifying, how humiliating, 
for a pure heart to encounter such experiences! It is 
some relief to feel that we are not the sole cause of 
their existence ; that we are not so bad as the instiga- 
tions would lead us to think we are; and that, when 
we drown or quench these darts of fire, no harm will 
befall us. The question recurs, Whence this pecu- 


190 CREDO. 


liar form or style of temptation—these depressions 
that come upon us when we have done the best and 
have the least occasion for them? ‘The hardness of 
heart, the restlessness of aim and purpose, these and 
other evil suggestions, have they no cause? Are these 
the forms of temptation which ordinarily come to us 
from the world and the flesh? Every thinking man, 
in accounting for such personal experiences, feels that 
it is folly to have recourse to abstractions. It is a 
pygmy philosophy which does not recognize in them a 
producing evil force, or which attempts to ignore 
their existence altogether. The tempest that springs 
suddenly out of a dead calm, tearing the sea from its 
foundations, and flinging it against the skies, must 
have a powerful cause somewhere; seen or unseen, a 
cause there must be. The frightful heaving of a burn- 
ing volcano must be produced by an existing force. 
So also must this spiritual earthquake, this frightful 
sea of evil passions, which surges about and some- 
times threatens to ingulf us, be produced by a power 
not figurative, but literal. Actual force in a living 
spirit, as the psychological root, becomes an absolute 
necessity. 

Rebellious and Sinful Conduct of Satan. — It is 
claimed by objectors that it is unreasonable to be- 
lieve that an intelligent being, who stood next to the 
Divine Manifestation in God’s glorious and harmo- 
nious empire, should have departed so far from recti- 
tude and virtue as to attempt to dethrone the Christ 
of the universe. We are free to confess that it was 
a strange stroke of policy and ambition. Not only 
strange, but sinful beyond measure, destitute of all 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. Ig! 


defence; it was lawless, anomalous, mysterious, and 
inexcusable. ‘ Sin,” says Charles Beecher, ** has no 
excuse.” The most, perhaps, we shall ever know of 
that transaction is the inevitable conclusion to which 
revelation leads, and where it leaves us. Satan, at 
the time of his fall, made a voluntary choice to be 
influenced by pride and treason. While we would 
not attempt to account for this inexplicable and con- 
tinued choice, we are led to ask whether any other ex- 
planation of the existence of evil in the world is more 
rational than that given in revelation, which associates 
with it the fall and present influence of the devil? 

Have not those states of a country which have 
been the least oppressed, which have been the most 
highly favored, possessed of peculiar rights and privi- 
leges, where the frosts of winter scarcely touched, and 
where the orange blossomed and ripened, — have not 
such states been known, without reasonable provoca- 
tion, to organize treasonable movements against a 
government that has always blessed and favored its 
people? Does history represent that such movements 
are planned and executed among the dregs of society? 
Will the leader usually be found to be a man who has 
been oppressed by the government, and driven to mad- 
ness by personal abuse? Is not the chief secessionist 
and rebel usually a leader of acknowledged power, 
of superior mind, and of marked intellectual sagacity ? 
May we not safely say that all movements which re- 
‘sult from pride and treason spring from above, and 
not from beneath, the masses? Is not sin “ of patri- 
cian rank, not plebeian ; of celestial. growth, not terres- 
trial?” * 

* Charles Beecher. 


4 


192 CREDO. 


Do not the Scriptures, therefore, state what is most 
natural, judging from what is seen, when they inform 
us that sin entered the world by one, the universe also 
by one — one standing not at the foot, but at the head 
of his order? Could any but an angel of the highest 
rank have originated such a baleful shadow of evil as 
now darkens the hearts of men and stains the purity 
of the universe? 

Once having entered upon this path of ruin, noth- 
ing is more natural than for Satan to continue as 
he is, and do as he does. The higher the being, the 
brighter the genius, the more certainly will suffering 
be preferred to the voluntary humiliation of pride. 
It is unnatural for any fallen intelligence to repent. 
Any other created being in the universe will sooner, 
more easily, and more naturally repent than the devil. 
Who made it unnatural— God? He made it possi- 
ble, because he has made his creatures free; they 
have made it natural, because sin, followed, becomes 
natural, and because, the step once taken, the tenden- 
cies once set, in a given direction, it is 2#-natural to 
move in the opposite direction. The old soldier loves 
the booming of the cannon, though he can no longer 
command the battalion. The age-stricken savage 
loves the wild war-whoop and bloody scalping-knife, 
though he can no longer sound the one or wield the 
other. He loves them because it has become natu- 
ral. So Satan and his confederates love the course 
they have pursued, though it can be tracked from the 
beginning to the end with ruin and blood. 

As young, comparatively, as the earth-born race is 
in crime, did not God hold it in check by Providence, 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 193 


conscience, and his spirit, its natural tendencies would 
lead it to follow but one course; there would be but 
one profession, and no loyal heart would beat. When 
any being, as in the case of Satan, passes beyond the 
restraints of God’s spirit, his character has become 
fixed and eternal. There is not power enough in the 
universe to change it. Satan has gone so far that he 
cannot change if he would, and would not if he could. 
The devil penitent! A penitent devil would be no 
devil. He is no more penitent than when he at- 
tempted to snatch the sceptre from the Son; no more 
penitent than are those hardened traitors who would 
rule a nation they could not conquer, ‘and who 
would reénact the murders and starvations of prison- 
pens! 

Satan would this moment strike Christ, the Infinite 
One, from his throne, if he were able, and usurp his 
place. Nothing would suit him better. He is the 
embodiment of the old infidel cry of France — “I 
wish I could dethrone the Almighty! Away with 
him!” He is the malice of Iago let loose upon the 
race. Stull persisting in his work, he rests neither 
day nor night, but plunges through the world on his 
mission of evil, seeking whom he may destroy. He 
is not destitute of motives in pursuing this course. 
He is stimulated at every turn by the expectation of 
gaining something, the delay of final punishment, per- 
haps, or victims, subjects, company, at least. 

He knows that every victim he gains, and every 
conquest he makes, will lengthen his earthly proba- 
tion. Like the demoniacs in the country of the Gad- 
arenes, he agonizes to escape from the abyss and 


13 


194 CREDO. 


remain on earth. He knows, also, that man is rising 
to a point far above himself, though lower by crea- 
tion; that the ‘seed of the woman,” with Christ at 
its head, is to fall with crushing weight upon him 
as soon as it is sanctified, and that thereafter no new 
conquests to his dominions can be made. Satan is 
following both a natural and an unnatural course; 
one that is unreasonable as it can be, but no more 
unreasonable than are the workings and phenomena 
of pride, selfishness, and treason, which everywhere 
meet the eye and témpt the heart. While, therefore, 
‘misery loves company,” — while there are a tempo- 
rary but fiendish relish, satisfaction, and delight in 
seeing others sin if we sin ourselves,— and while 
Satan is permitted to walk among men, it need not 
be a matter of surprise that truth struggles for its ex- 
istence, and that a well-organized spiritual carnival 
has polluted the earth for six thousand years, and will 
continue to pollute it until this common foe is exiled. 
We may rest assured that all the jealousy and malice 
of his diabolic nature will be roused against mankind, 
and that whenever he can ruin a member of the vic- 
torious race on the outposts or in his own territories, 
he most certainly and most naturally will do it. 

The Permission given to Satan to tempt and 
destroy the Fluman Race. —It is claimed by ration- 
alists, that, even if Satan should choose a course so 
fatal to his best interests, God would not allow him to 
tempt and destroy humanity. But God allows the 
world and the flesh to do ‘this; why is it more un- 
reasonable that the devil should receive the same per- 
mission? Who is sure that the world and the flesh 
do not destroy the greater number? 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 195 


In the university of humanity thousands fall during 
the period of discipline. Shall we demand of God to 
bolt its doors, that none may enter it? Could he justly 
and wisely do this, if all caz be safely and thoroughly 
disciplined? if all caz take honorable diplomas and 
receive creditable dismissals? Is not he who con- 
quers the world and the flesh worth more by that 
discipline than the thousand who needlessly fall? Is 
not trial better than freedom from it? Cannot the 
race afford to run frightful risks to gain what is in 
store? Is not risk everywhere the price of great vic- 
tories and glorious achievements? Does not the man 
who resists most perfectly the most powerful and sub- 
tle temptations become thereby the strongest man — 
the hero-man? God permits the evil one to do his 
work, then, not for our injury, but for our highest 
good. 

The spirit that struggles up through the scum of 
society becomes its brightest ornament. The mest 
brilliant cut diamond was once rough as the pebble in 
the street. Its cutting has disclosed its value. One 
ripe piece of fruit is worth the ground covered with 
blights. We bow before Him who comes with red 
garments from Bozrah. Have we not learned that 
Omnipotence itself cannot create human character? 
that it is a thing we make ourselves? and that to 
make it well, we must be left to comtend?2 If God 
made it impossible to sin, we should not be men, but 
machines. If we were left without temptation, we 
should no longer possess Virtue or heroism. We xeed 
the sudden and peculiar assaults of Satan, in order to 
secure the perfection of a Christian — a Christ-man. 


- 


196 CREDO. 


This was His trial. While God shows his mercy to 
Satan, both in allowing him, for a season after his 
fall, to remain in his presence, and in giving him a 
respite on earth before his final banishment, still the 
wrath of Satan shall be turned to God’s praise, and 
shall work nothing but good to the heir of heaven. 
Flear the apostle: ‘‘ Be sober, be vigilant; because 
your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh 
about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist 
steadfast in the faith. The God of all grace, who 
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, 
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, 
establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory 
and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Satan's 
power, according to the Scriptures, is permitted, not 
out of respect to him or his kingdom, but that men 
through resistance may be made perfect, established, 
strengthened, settled. In every temptation that befalls 


us God has regard to our eternal interests and to our 


highest development. His object is to make kings 
and priests of mortals. His plan is to qualify them 
to administer the laws of those kingdoms and worlds 
from whose thrones Satan and his followers have fallen. 
The Creator is to vindicate to the universe his long- 
suffering and tender mercy, and to demonstrate that 
the principles of his government are right, and will 
endure forever; that they can stand safely amid all 
the fearful and deadly assaults made against them. 

It may be observed, also, that the sceptical objec- 
tion in question overlooks a fact which should ever be 
borne in mind, — this, that during our probation God 
has strictly limited Satan’s influence over us. He has 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 197 


created us with endowments, and thrown about us 
counter-influences, sufficient to enable us at every turn 
to cope successfully with Satan and all his accom- 
plices. Men are daily and hourly conquering him; 
not all, but some. All do not; all caz. Though 
Satan can and does afflict us sorely in the trial ; 
though the ancient and sorrowing patriarch on the 
plains of Uz is humanity in miniature ; though Sabe- 
ans, Chaldeans, lightnings, diseases and deaths are 
hurled with amazing accuracy and rapidity, one after 
another, upon us by this unseen hand; though when 
he meets us it is personality against personality, 
agency against agency, spirit against spirit, just as 
real as in the time and temptation of Christ ; though 
he does allow us no peace, and does bruise us in the 
conflict; though his daring, skill, and malignity are 
ynequalled ; though he is constantly seeking to weave 
us into his subtle and ever entangling web, which 
ends in fire of wrath insufferable ; though he lays 
hold upon those, by permission, whom God forsakes, 
springing upon them like an assassin in the night, 
as a strong man armed upon the defenceless, — still 
the human soul can be, and ought to be, and must 
be, his master; otherwise its destruction is inevitable, 
Satan can tempt only; comfel he cannot. Resistance 
in a child will put him to flight. If men are ever 
bound to his chariot-wheels, — and unless they resist 
him they will be, —it is only because they have allowed 
him to bind them there. If they are his servants, led 
captive at his will, it is only because they have yielded 
themselves servants to obey him. He tramples upon 
men only when they bow before him. He takes the 


198 CREDO. 


sword from them only when they tender it to him. 
He can never enter and hold possession of the soul, 
unless we deliver to him the key. We are made pris- 
oners never by force, always by surrender; but when 
a final surrender has been made, the slaughter is ter- 
rible. The pleasant baits are then thrown aside; 
smiles give place to frowns; and absolute malignity 
takes possession; we become helpless victims in the 
hands of an experienced wretch. It is Indian war- 
fare — indiscriminate slaughter; no quarter shown, no 
regard to the rules of war, to the pledges and prom- 
ises given. The devil pity his victim? No, never! 
He who makes men presume to commit sin, and 
then despair of being forgiven; he who speaks gently 
when he would lead them aside, but afterwards thun- 
ders into their consciences the accents of damnation; 
he who cruelly insults his victim, lashing him into 
madness, playing the oppressor, tyrant, and usurper 
over him, — Ze knows no pity. An emotion of pity 
felt by him would leave the universe without a devil. 
O, fortunate it is that we can resist such a being if 
we will! 

Warnings of the Scriptures against Satan. — 
The inspired writers speak as though they felt that 
the human race was exposed to constant and fearful 
peril. And when we pause to think, do not startling 
facts, as well as the Word of God, crowd us on to 
strange conclusions? Is not human life fearful? Who 
are we, that we should face these deadly foes that 
throng our pathway, with such odds against us? Can 
we be safe by remaining careless and inactive? Can 
we look upon the world about us, can we explore 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 199 


our own souls, and be indifferent to the fact that this 
‘“‘ Leviathan” is actually passing up and down the 
earth, seeking whom he may deceive and devour? 
The entire spirit of revelation leads to the conclusion, 
that every man is known by Satan through his own 
visitation, or through some obedient agent, and that, 
if we can be ruined, he knows the particular method 
which will be most effectual, and the time when we 
shall be least on guard. We have strong appetites, 
passions, or impulses. He knows it; knows it too 
well. He turns his hand skilfully, ever varying his 
assaults. If we are merry, he allures us to careless- 
ness and thoughtlessness; if sad and pensive, he 
tempts to some desperate deed. He does his work 
by fair means, or foul; by telling the truth, or a lie; 
by swimming with the current, or stemming it; by 
remaining silent, or becoming noisy and garrulous; 
by frowning like a demon of darkness, or glistening 
as an angel of light. He becomes a deceiver, a ser- 
pent, professed friend, avowed enemy; anything and 
everything to suit his purpose and gain his end. Eve 
is walking in the garden of Eden: her eye rests upon 
delicious fruit. Satan knows, at a glance, his victim. 
Choosing for his agent the most sagacious animal of 
the field, he speaks to her: ‘Thou shalt not surely 
die in the day thou eatest thereof.” ‘* Eat! eat!” was 
his coaxing invitation. The woman ate; and spiritual 
death has followed the race from that day to this. 
The same voice is now heard on earth, though Eden 
is lost: ‘*‘ Eat! drink! You shall not die in the day 
thereof;’’ and his new victims tremble, yield, and are 
plunged into the first and second deaths. What is 


200 CREDO. 


true of animal appetites is equally true of mental 
tastes and human passions. It is true of every passion 
and impulse man is heir to. If we yield to Satan at 
a single point, he will most certainly control events to 
suit his purpose. His purpose is to accomplish our 
spiritual overthrow. He sees that one man can only be 
led to curse God and die through adversity: he sends 
adversity, and often ruins his victim. He sees that 
another, by uninterrupted prosperity, or favor of cir- 
cumstance, will be most likely to remain unmindful 
of the claims of God: he allows that man to prosper. 
He plants in his yard the olive, while he sows the seed 
of the myrtle in that of his neighbor. He allows some 
men more peace while sinners than they would enjoy 
if righteous. He sees that silver and gold will block 
the door of heaven against some men. He suggests 
to them, by various means (he is seldom at his wit’s 
end, except before Christ and his image), what are the 
best investments. He thus causes money to be taken 
from the treasury of one, and piled up in that of an- 
other. Some sare rich because the devil is permitted 
to help them; others are stripped of their property 
by his agency, as in the case of Job. He would be 
glad to help any person to great wealth; he would 
be glad to point his wit, illustrate his arguments, pol- 
ish his sentences, and do for him a thousand things, 
if he could only thereby induce him to fall down and 
worship. He would do all this, however, not be- 
cause it will be of any real advantage to the man; not 
that he cares a whit for his prosperity; not that he 
cares for men to acknowledge him as the cause of 
their success. Like the skilful hunter, he tries at 


met 


ety 


te & 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 201 


every point to conceal his person while pursuing his 
game: he would not have men tormented by thoughts 
of him before their time; but he would do all this, 
that, through wealth or ease of circumstance, by some 
temporal promotion or literary success, he might, at 
length, in a critical and unsuspected moment, plunge 
humanity into ruin and endless sorrow. He is an old 
and experienced wretch and craftsman: on his terri- 
tories one cannot outwit him: take a pound from 
him, and he will take hundreds from you. He stakes 
nothing, comparatively, in his throw, while man 
stakes everything. It is an apple against Paradise, a 
handful of gold against heaven. 

The warnings of revelation to the world are there- 
fore timely. It would not be a sufficiently full revela- 
tion without them. 

An additional thought meets us at this point. Does 
not the permission God gives Satan to punish wicked 
men in this life make it rational to believe that the 
same permission will be extended to him after death? 
Men cannot escape the conviction that it is the most 
fearful thing on earth to fall into Satan’s power, and 
experience the remorse which he develops in the 
soul of the sinner. He writes thousands where the 
law writes but fifty. He stains an ordinary sin with 
the blackness of perdition. A record of the madness, 
insanity, and suicide to which he has driven his vic- 
tims would constitute the saddest volume ever written. 
Impenitent men, sinking under the hand of death, and 
into the power of Satan, have cried out, with an agony 
so terrible, upon nearing his visible presence, that even 
the sceptic and infidel have been appalled. He flashes 


202 CREDO. 


the vision of his presence upon the soul of the ine- 
briate ; he sends to the couch of the murderer ‘the 
ghost of him he slew;” he wrings confessions from 
the lips of criminals of every grade, and then black- 
ens them with disgrace and crushes them with de- 
spair. 

_ If he can lash the sinner so fearfully in this world, if 
he can insult and abuse the human soul to such an ex- 
tent in its present condition and freedom, what torture 
will not this powerful, active, and heartless being in- 
flict when all his skill, wit, industry, energy, and 
malice have full play! Can he do otherwise than 
terrify into complete madness, until repose would be 
more peaceful on a bed of living coals than in his 
presence? ‘The sting of death is sin— sin pointed, 
barbed, and poisoned by Satan. 

Is any theory of the church more rational than the 
one which aims to save men from being victimized by 
such a mysterious and tyrannical enemy? Is it nota 
sublime warfare that it wages against him? Is it not 
a righteous indignation that speaks from its pulpits, 
and burns upon its altars, against such a deadly foe 
of virtue and of truth? 

With deference and kindness to all, we believe that 
that theory is alone consistent and rational which 
admits that there is a supernatural spirit and world of 
evil, and which exhorts mankind to be armed with 
the supernatural helmet, breastplate, and sword be- 
fore which Satan falls, and which extorts from him 
his old cry of terror, ‘I know thee, who thou art,” 
as he meets the image of Christ in the human 
heart. 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 203, 


But the Scriptures speak to the church in no less 
important terms than to the world outside the church. 
They represent that the very elect are not overlooked 
by Satan. He stood at Joshua’s right hand, to accuse 
him; he moved David to number Israel, and disobey 
God; he sifted the apostle Peter; he continually buf- 
feted Paul, and hindered him once and again from 
going to the Thessalonians. 

He is the great deceiver, as well as the troubler, of 
Israel ; he enacts, under mask, a most dangerous part 
in the house of believers; he takes the place of the 
Holy Ghost; he sometimes gives us the seeming 
‘‘ witness of the Spirit,” when we are not entitled to 
it; he assumes the office of comforter, counsellor, 
sympathizer, and helper. There is not a solitary 
work of the Divine One which he does not skilfully 
imitate. He is an angel, a Saviour, or a devout wor- 
shipper; he is a wonderful counterfeiter; skilful and 
variable are his tactics; he assures some men that 
they are sufficiently good — good as they can be; he 
tells others that they are not sufficiently good, but that 
it is useless to attempt to become better; to some he 
says, ‘* You are wise,” to others, ‘“‘ You are foolish ai 
to some that they have sinned away the day of grace, 
to others that there is no day of grace; to some he 
proclaims the doctrine of unconditional election, to 
others the doctrine of universal free grace; to this 
one, this thing, to another, that thing, without regard 
to truth, but with sole regard to his own success and 
their ruin. 

There are those who are represented as being 
surprised on the day of judgment that they are con- 


204 CREDO. 


demned. The truth will then appear, for the first 
time, that they have been deceived. Satan had been 
repeatedly telling them that they were doing their 
whole duty, when they were neither living in love 
and charity with their neighbors, feeding the hungry, 
nor giving a cup of cold water to the thirsty traveller 
by the way-side. How, then, it may be asked, are 
men to know what they are — whether servants 
of God, or the devil; heirs of heaven, or of perdi- 
tion? Revelation informs us of but one absolute 
ground of security, and of but one absolute condition 
of safety. The ground of security is the atonement 
of Christ, and the condition of safety consists in de- 
voting ourselves, soberly and earnestly, to the service 


_of God, in vanquishing Satan by nearing and accepting 


Christ, and by following the example of Christ, not 
once a week, but daily and hourly. Safety depends in 
looking upon this life as a hard fight, —a hand-to- 
hand fight, — in which the Cross of Christ and a de- 
voted life are our only protection. In possession of 
these, if Satan tells us we are numbered among the 
elect, we can reply, We know it. If he tells us we 
have sinned away the day of grace, we can tell him 
he lies. We can face the adversity which he is per- 
mitted to send upon us, and trust our integrity, as did 
the afflicted patriarch. But without this devotion, 
nothing is secure. Fancied security, under such cir- 
cumstances, is but a dream, excited by the gentle, 
soothing, but fatal whispers of this evil one, saying, 
** It is well, it is well,” when it is not well; saying, 
‘You are safe, you are safe,” when you are not safe. 
** Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 205 


who shall stand in his holy place?” Let the reply be 
engraved upon the walls of church and home alike: 
‘He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who 
hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn de- 
ceitfully.” 

These, these of outward and inward purity, are the 
loyal and impregnable hearts of God’s universe. God 
will trust more to these than to all the swords that 
have dripped with blood. Many a pugnacious man 
would volunteer to fight the devil with fist and club. 
The ink-bottle encounter by Luther is not the most 
heroic. Virtue and resistance are alone valiant in 
this contest. It is the blow struck for Christ which 
is a blow directly upon the head of Satan. It is the 
blow dealt in support of error that adds to his ma- 
lignant power, lengthens his earthly probation, and 
strengthens his dark confederacy. 


“It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will 
come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 

“‘I knewa man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether 
in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot 
tell: God knoweth): suchaone caught up to the third heaven. 

‘And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the 
body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) : how that he was caught 
up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is 
not lawful for a man to utter.” 2 Corinthians Xli. I-5. 

‘‘ Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so 
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and 
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with 
patience the race that is set before us.” Flebrews xii. 1. 

“* Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times 
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
Spirits, and doctrines of devils; 

*¢ Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared 
with a hot iron.” 1 Timothy iv. 1, 2. 

‘This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall 
come. 

‘*For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, 
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, un- 
thankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, 
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are 
good. j 

‘Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more 
than lovers of God; 

‘“* Having a form of godliness, but denying the power there- 
of: from such turn away. 

‘For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead 
captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers 
lusts ; 


‘Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge 
of the truth. 


‘* But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be 
manifest unto all men.” 2 Timothy, iii. 1-9, 


(206) 


IV. 


PERMITTED AND PROHIBITED 
SPIRITUALISM. 


PISTTAN people have often attempted to sup- 

port truth with artificial props and expedients, 
instead of trusting it to the virtue of its own vital 
power. When the Puritans came to this country, they 
thought the interests of religious faith required them to 
abolish all the forms and polity employed by the Estab- 
lished Church of England. Plainness of dress, un- 
adorned churches, the absence of all instrumental music, 
and standing, instead of kneeling, while in the act of 
prayer, were things religiously enjoined. A few years 
ago, during and just after the Miller excitement, cer- 
tain important and glorious doctrines of the church 
were passed in silence. The doctrines of the millen- 
nium, of the second coming of Christ, the prophecies 
of Daniel, the disclosure of the future by our Saviour, 
the Apocalypse of John in Patmos, were rarely alluded 
fowin) the! church’ or; atuhomew) losome extent, we 
find at present another illustration of this same ten- 
dency and timidity concerning the developments and 


claims of modern spiritualism. The church has been 
(207) 


208 CREDO. 


betrayed thereby into an unfortunate and painful 
silence respecting the condition of our friends after 
death. Whether they are consciously active or inac- 
tive, whether they make us frequent, occasional, or no 
visits, are questions rarely asked except by professed 
spiritualists. The mourner has been denied every 
shadow of comfort from this source, and from the 
child has been taken away all impressions of the pres- 
ence of a mother or a friend in his journey and strug- 
gle through life. The effort of the church has been to 
banish the dead to the greatest possible distance from 
the earth, and into perpetual inaction. Truths which 
were once preached with an inspiring force and confi- 
dence, awaking in the heart a desire for a new and 
better life, have been denied all discussion except in 
secret, and all support except in our convictions. This 
condition of things, however, is not a subject of con- 
gratulation to the church, but rather. one of regret. 
The church has gained no power thereby ; it has be- 
trayed a certain weakness. It has gained no hearers, 
but has left comfortless many hearts which might have 
been cheered. Whatever temporary advantage may 
be gained by modern spiritualists, the church ought 
fearlessly to speak its convictions. Through timidity 
it should not withhold the publication of any scrip- 
tural doctrine. The deepest and highest truths ever 
lie nearest to the deadliest heresies. The most danger- 
ous counterfeit is most like the genuine coin. The 
greatest lights have continually beside them the dark- 
est shadows, and the snow is always whitest and purest 
at the mouth of a grave. 

Permitted Spiritualism will first claim our atten- 
tion. 


] 
1 
: 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 209 


Few will deny the statement that mankind may 
receive certain impressions from a deep and pure 
spiritual life, which cannot be received Without it. 
‘May there not be such purity of heart and life as to 
allow one to talk with, or even walk with, God, as 
Enoch did? This kind of communication is granted, 
however, not through the mediation of others, but 
directly and by means of impressions. It consists in 
permitted visits to hearts, rather than to eyes, or ears. 
They are invisible angels of mercy, which come to 
the good, often unsought, but never unwelcome. 

The apostle Paul, in one of his most forcible and 
beautiful exhortations, represents mankind as running 
on a face-course, upon either side of which he sup- 
poses that illustrious witnesses are standing in great 
numbers. The connection in which the passage 
occurs conveys the impression that the dead of this 
world are among those witnesses, in a thick cloud to 
us, but in a cloud so thin to them that they are able to 
hear distinctly our songs of praise, our voices of sor- 
row, and our footfall echoes upon the pavements of 
the highway to immortality. Revelation elsewhere 
invites the belief that by means of impressions these 
friendly witnesses, unrecognized, communicate with us, 
inspiring our hearts and cheering our lives. 

In addition to this impressional communication from 
the immortal world, the Scriptures tell us of some- 
thing more, and different, involving audible and visi- 
ble manifestations which have sometimes spoken to 
the ear and flashed before the eyes of men. This is 
not unreasonable, nor impossible. What evangelical 
Christian will not admit that Christ is always with his 


14 


210 CREDO. 


followers? Who will deny that he could, as an ever- 
present being, reveal himself instantly in the same 
or in different forms, in the same or different places, 
as a friend or companion? Was it impossible for him, 
after his resurrection, to appear as a Jewish traveller 
and stranger on the road to Emmaus; as a gardener 
to the women at the tomb; to Cephas in one place, 
and to all, if circumstances had required it, at the 
same instant? Cannot the Holy Spirit manifest his 
power, on the same evening and at the same hour, to 
the multitudes of worshipping Christians everywhere? 
Cannot God manifest his power in the sun shining in 
the heavens, in the leaf trembling in the breeze, or in 
a rose-bud crushed in the hand of a child? May not 
that vision be a reality which has left 


‘* A smile so fixed, so holy, on the brow, 
Death gazed, and left it there; 
He dared not steal that signet-ring of heaven”? 


May not ‘thy rod and thy staff” have a vital mean- 
ing to every dying Christian? May not the promise 
of Christ, ‘‘ Not as the world giveth give I unto you,” 
be so verified that no Christian shall be left to go 
through the dark valley without the visible manifesta- 
tion of his Saviour to precede him? Do not the voice 
that spoke to Moses in the burning bush, —the mys- 
terious visitor whom Abraham entertained, and to 
whom he prayed, — the personality with whom Jacob 
wrestled, — the form of the fourth in the blazing fur- 
nace, — the vision of the host of God granted to Eli- 
sha and his servant,—the visions of Cornelius at 
Cesarea; of Paul, who knew not whether he were 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 211 


in or out of the body ; of John in the Isle of Patmos, — 
furnish ample ground for the foundation of a rational 
belief in the existence of a spirit-world near us, and 
that communication with it, through agencies not hu- 
man, is not impossible or unreasonable ? If, then, the 
Bible teaches the startling and sublime doctrine that 
the dead are ministering, or tempting, spirits, as they 
are good or bad, let the church hesitate no longer, but 
accept it, trusting that its excrescences will in time be 
removed. If it is perverted, it will only have suffered 
the fate of all other doctrines. Certainly men will 
linger less in the graveyard, if convinced that the 
- dead are elsewhere. When men are wont to cherish 
the healthy convictions of an unseen, but of an actual, 
active, and immediate future, they will have a pulse 
of less flurried beat, nay, one that shall beat quick 
and deep for Christ and heaven. 

We are now prepared to consider the subject of 

Prohibited or Medium Spiritualism. — There are 
many things which have been passed to the credit of 
medium spiritualism which have nothing whatever 
to do with it. The phenomena of clairvoyance, mes- 
merism, and animal magnetism are brought forward 
as the fruits of spiritualism, and as direct evidence 
that the dead communicate with friends through the 
agency of mediums. 

Let us look at these manifestations for a moment. 
It is claimed that there are certain persons who are 
able to see objects concealed from eyesight, and re- 
mote; that they can tell us accurately how our friends, 
hundreds of miles distant, at a given moment are en- 
gaged; what is at present, and what is in the future 


™~ 


212 CREDO. 


to be, the condition of our business, and why we are 
pleased or depressed. These persons are said to be 
able, under certain physical or mental conditions, to 
speak a language of which they are ignorant, play 
upon musical instruments with which they are un- 
acquainted, converse fluently and intelligently upon 
subjects with which they are not familiar, explore our 
memories, and catch the impressions there recorded 
before we note them ourselves, and thus to surprise us 
by speaking of that which we had forgotten. 

Besides these transactions, which, for the sake of 
the argument, we are willing to admit, there are cer- 
tain other things pointing in the same direction, with 
which we are all familiar, and which we are compelled 
to admit. We often receive a mental despatch, and 
make preparations to receive our friends before they 
announce themselves at the door. In company, we 
are often surprised to hear some one remark upon the 
very topic which was silently working in our own 
thoughts. We have spoken of the same thing at the 
same time with some other person near us. Often we 
have been thinking, during a previous week, upon the 
very subject which the preacher announced on the 
Sabbath for the theme of his discourse. All these 
phenomena show a deep and unexplained communi- 
cation of soul with soul, of spirit with spirit; but not 
with the spirits of dead men. They have nothing 
whatever to do with anything but the living. The 
time is coming when this department of psychology 
will be reduced to a definite science. It will become 
of great practical utility to the race, and will work 
itself clear of all connection with modern spiritual- 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 213 


ism. It may supersede the magnetic telegraph as a 
means of communication, and the detective police as 
a means of ferreting out public criminals. A hundred 
years will develop marvellous changes in human 
affairs, and make steam and lightning slow and clum- 
sy. It is only because of the present undeveloped 
condition of the psychological sciences that spiritual- 
ists have seized upon them, and through their agency 
have been enabled to win many converts and delude 
many hearts. 

But, aside from these things, modern spiritualists 
have not scrupled to employ direct and intentional 
deceit in their transactions. A kind of skilful dex- 
terity —a sleight of hand —has often done a work 
which has been attributed to spirits. The Japanese 
jugglers could pass for splendid mediums. Of all this 
legerdemain, however, under the name of spiritual- 
ism, there is but one thing to be said, and that is in 
its condemnation. The person who will thus volun- 
tarily deceive another; who will affirm that certain 
phenomena are produced by the dead, when he knows 
they are produced by trickery ; who pretends to call 
back the departed spirit of a friend to console the 
living, and who knows there is no truth in it, — does 
he not deserve to be branded as a villain? and ought 
he not to be forever exiled from respectable society? 
Is he not a liar, a thief, and a robber? 

Classtfication of the leading Medium Spiretual- 
ests. — It may be difficult, if not impossible, to make 
a complete classification of all those who are more or 
less pledged to the support of spiritualism. 

Many good people, no doubt, have entered the ranks 


214 CREDO. 


of spiritualism. They are there in consequence of 
having lost friends, and from being filled with ab- 
sorbing desires to communicate with them. Such 
persons deserve not words of condemnation, but need 
words of warning. When brought into the presence 
of real or pretended mediums, they listen, yield to 
their clairvoyance, jugglery, or necromancy, and, at 
length, under the weakness of a broken heart, or ex- 
cited imagination, obey every command that is given. 
It is among these dilapidated and sorrowing taberna- 
cles, these ruins of former happiness and prosperity, 
that the medium revels without hinderance, as ghosts 
are said to haunt gloomy and deserted houses. 

There are also restless and inquisitive men who are 
spiritualists. They are eager, in any and every way, 
to obtain possession of the secrets of the unknown 
world. They are ready to listen to any voice, and 
obey any command, but that of revelation. They 
would gain heaven, but in a forbidden path. Dis- 
satisfied with the crucifix, they weave a garland of 
imaginary flowers, which they call Christianity. Dis- 
satisfied with the life they have led, they resort to 
spiritualism ; call it religion, and themselves religious. 
Among this class are found the more daring and per- 
sistent of the order. 

In addition to these, there are those among spirit- 
ualists who possess cool heads and steady hands. 
They claim to be investigators. They assume noth- 
ing, they profess nothing, and pretend to deny nothing. 
They are spiritualistic philosophers. From this class 
have arisen the most pitiable dupes of this delusion. 
Others will be found, who hope, by associating with 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 215 


mediums, to reap some pecuniary advantage in their 
business transactions, or gain some practical knowl- 
edge hidden from others. 

Lastly, there will be found those who are sensual 
and devilish men. They are spiritualists simply be- 
cause spiritualism affords them the best of opportuni- 
ties to indulge their corrupt passions and perpetrate 
their fiendish schemes upon willing or ignorant vic- 
tims. 

Lrutts of Medium Spiritualism. —~ All our read- 
ers may not be apprised of the fact that spiritual- 
ism has assumed a somewhat remarkable political 
attitude, and that many leading public men in 
America and Europe indorse its positions, and are 
ranked among its believers. The following state- 
ment, published in ‘The Spiritual Age,” certainly 
has the merit of being unambiguous: ‘ Let us as- 
sume,” says the article, “‘a political attitude, and 
make the world feel that we are no longer to be 
trampled on with impunity.” In answering the ques- 
tion of their political designs, they reply, ‘* The de- 
sign is to crush, destroy, and break in pieces all 
existing forms of government, and build a form 
which shall be a Theocratic Democracy. Every 
man will be his own ruler, and his natural demands 
his highest law.” 

An article published in ‘‘ The Telegraph,” under 
the title ‘‘ Practical Spiritualism, Purposes, and Plans,” 
contains the following: “It is hardly to be supposed 
that an enterprise so startling to the world as the 
spiritual movement, would have for its grand end 
anything like the presentation of mere phenomenal 


216 CREDO. 


exhibitions. The great purpose is of a much broader 
nature, and of a more thoroughly practical spirit.” 

*¢ Spiritualism,” continues the article, ‘‘is the mother 
of all institutions for external uses, therefore the mother 
of the states, and in the combination takes the place 
of the union of church and state. It is the purpose of 
spiritualism to so educate a class of persons in certain 
practical functions, that they shall become pivots of 
groups in the coming new social order.” 

The following statement may be found in a “ Sol- 
diers’ Tract,” published by the spiritualists, July 4, 
1861: ‘* The next government which shall arise over 
this people, and which is even now drawing nigh 
from out the angel-world, will be a Theocratic De- 
mocracy, — God ruling through mediumistic man... . 
And then, as Spiritualism and Celestialism march 
over the land, the master-souls, once denizens of time, 
will influence men’s acts; the spiritual congress above 
will guide in all wisdom and truth the councils assem- 
bled here below.” 

At a meeting of spiritualists held in Abington, 
Mass., a noted spiritualist made the following re- 
marks: ‘‘ The time is speedily coming when every 
one who has opposed, scorned, reviled, and persecuted 
spiritual communion will be brought to the altar of 
sacrifice; will suffer sorrow, regret, affliction... . It 
will be a bitter cup, but a necessary remedy for the 
present sickly morals and religions of men. It is in 
the power of the spiritual world to make any poor 
man rich in one day, — to make any rich man poor in 
one day; to make a well man sick in a moment of 
time, or to make a sick man well; to take life, or to 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 21 y 


continue it; to make woe in the human heart, or joy 
and gladness there....Imminent and immediate dan- 
gers to earthly prosperity hang over all opposition to 
spiritual communion.” # 

This is the temper they show, and such the politics 
they publish. But more than this: leading spiritual- 
ists feel at liberty to perjure themselves in courts of 
justice, defy the judge on the bench, laugh at the jury 
in the box, and violate the most solemn compacts and 
agreements, at the direction of a medium. They 
affirm that the claims of the state are superseded 
by spiritualism; that human society is nothing, that 
human law is nothing, and that spiritual communi- 
cation is everything. In view of such published 
statements, can we not justly pronounce the leading 
Spiritualists of America traitors? Do they not declare 
themselves in waiting to inaugurate a form of treason 
more deadly than that of the Southern Cotton Oli- 
garchy? Had they the power and courage, would 
they not do as bad a thing for the nation to-day as the 
devil could do, were he present as their leader? 

But again: Leading and influential spiritualists 
seek the subversion of all true religion, as well as 
government. They reject the Bible. Sin, in their 
creed, is only the casting off of the gross part of 
human nature, and is strictly in accordance with the 
will and pleasure of God. The doctrine of a personal 
devil is entirely ignored. ‘ Man,” they say, ‘‘ must be 
devoid of good sense to believe anything of the kind.” 
Christ, as a personal Saviour, is thus disposed of: 
“No man should rely upon any Saviour outside him- 
self. Hach and every man is a Saviour, a God. 


218 CREDO. 


Christ is no more the Son of God than was John 
Howard or George Washington.” 

“The Age of Freedom,” published at Berlin 
Heights, Ohio, contains the following: ‘‘ What a 
horrible phantom, what a soul-crushing superstition, 
is this idea of an overruling, omnipresent, all-powerful 
God!... Belief in a God is degrading, whatever the 
character ascribed to him. Where is your God? I 
can stand up, and look him in the face, and affirm 
that I] have a right to ‘life, liberty, and happiness,’ 
whether it is his pleasure that I shall enjoy them or 
not.” 

Blasphemy is justified; and in public assemblies 
God is set aside in mockery, and prayers are offered 
directly to an imaginary Satan. The leaders of this 
society are sceptics, infidels, and atheists. 

In addition to this, are we not justified in the asser- 
tion that no order, in any civilized land on earth, 
ever taught a more corrupt morality than that which 
the leading spiritual publications of the day advocate? 
We cover a broad field when we say that spiritualism 
allows and justifies any act which is prompted by the 
lusts of a depraved heart. Ata national convention 
of spiritualists, held at Chicago, it was provided, that 
‘*no charge should ever be entertained against any 
member, and that any person, without regard to moral 
character, might become a member.” 

At the Rutland Reform Convention, a female spir- 
itualist, as reported in the ‘‘ Banner of Light,” made 
the following remarks in support of the rights of 
women: ‘*She must demand her freedom; her right 
to receive the equal wages of man in payment for her 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 219 


labor; her right to have children when she will, and 
by whom she will.” ‘ This,” says a certain writer,* 
who has thoroughly canvassed the subject, and to 
whom we are indebted for the compilation of these 
quotations, ‘means nothing, and can mean nothing, 
but indiscriminate and debasing lust.” 

The author of the “‘ Educator” became the father 
of an illegitimate child by direction of the spirits ; and 
the course of the guilty parties was thus justified in the 
editorial page of the “ Spiritual Telegraph,” published 
in New York: “It is reserved for this our day, under 
the inspiration of the spirit-world, for a quiet, equable, 
retiring woman, to rise up in the dignity of her woman- 
hood, and declare, in the face of her oppressors and a 
scowling world, ‘/ w2d/ be free.’... And no man or set 
of men, no church, no state, shall withhold from me 
the realization of that purest of all aspirations inherent 
in every true woman—the right to re-beget myself, 
when, and by whom, and under such circumstances, 
as to me seems fit and best.” 

The wife of the founder of the free-love institution 
at Berlin Heights, Ohio, sent a letter to the “ Detroit 
Free Press,” of which the following is an extract: 
‘* My husband was the founder of the Berlin Free-love 
Institution. He has been a believer in that free-love 
doctrine for about three years. A year ago or more 
he left home, ostensibly upon business; but he only 
roamed around in search of free-love companions ; 
having found a small number of which, he took them 
to Berlin, and founded the infamous den of lust which 
now exists there. He left me with three little chil- 


* Miles Grant. 


220 CREDO. 


dren to provide for, and nothing to do it with but my 
hands. I have stood for four days in the week over 
the wash-tub, laboring until my strength has many a 
time given way entirely, for the sake of a little money 
with which to feed my children.” Had the devil a 
wife, could he be more faithless and heartless than 
that man! 

When we recall the evil that spiritualism has done 
to society, — when we think of what it proposes to 
do, — notwithstanding all its insinuating threats, ought 
it not to be denounced? In the name of the state 
ought it not to be denounced? It.reeks with treason. 
In the name of God and religion ought it not to be 
denounced? It seeks to rob the world of all faith in 
Christ, and offers no substitute. In the name of all 
things pure and good ought it not to be denounced? 
It would send sensualism into every household unre- 
buked, and rob us of everything we cherish most 
sacredly. Nothing in society should receive a more 
bitter and scathing condemnation than medium spir- 
itualism. 

Dr. B. F. Hatch, husband of the noted Mrs. Cora V. 
Hatch, afterwards Mrs. Daniels (what by this time 
we do not know), makes the following published 
statement: ‘*l have known many whose integrity of 
character and uprightness of purpose rendered them 
worthy examples to all around, but who, on becom- 
ing mediums, and giving up their individuality, also 
gave up every sense of honor and decency... . Ini- 
quities which have justly received the condemnation 


of centuries are openly upheld; vices which would. 


destroy every wholesome regulation of society are 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 221 


crowned as virtues; prostitution is believed to be 
fidelity to self; marriage an outrage on freedom; love 
evanescent, and, like the bee, should sip the sweets 
wherever found; and bastards are claimed to be 
spiritually begotten. ...I most solemnly affirm,” he 
continues, ‘‘that I do not believe that there has, dur- 
ing the past five hundred years, arisen any class of 
people who were guilty of so great a variety of crimes 
and indecencies as the spiritualists of America.” 

Taking for granted only what is claimed by spir- 
itualistic leaders, what is published in their journals 
and practised in their daily walk, should not all moral 
and patriotic citizens, in order that ‘the community 
may live in peace, that the citizen may feel himself 
safe in the bosom of his family, that our streets may 
be safe to walk in, that our land may be a country fit 
to live in,” — rebuke and loathe spiritualism, with all 
its legion of nameless crimes? And then, if persisted 
in, should it not be punished by the enactment and 
enforcement of rigorous and wholesome laws? 

When spiritualists have the effrontery to teach such 
base immorality and corrupt sensualism; when they 
publicly announce that all matrimony should be con- 
demned, except that which is voluntary, temporary, 
and terminable at pleasure; when in public they ad- 
vocate, and in private practise, the principles of free 
love, which destroys whole communities, degrades the 
individual, and obscures the brightest sun-light of 
homes and hearts; when they trail in the dust all that 
exalts woman above the condition of a slave, or a 
brute ; when they constantly seek to sap the heart of 
all virtue, and generate in it the elements of atheism, 


222 CREDO. 


falsehood, and shamelessness; when they crush the 
voice of conscience, make of purity a name, and of 
correct tastes false pretence,— when they advocate 
these things, practised in all ages only by the vilest 
and meanest of human beings, it is not only high 
time that public sentiment had broken the silence, 
and pronounced its awful verdict of condemnation, 
but high time also that we had paused to inquire re- 
specting the producing cause of this corrupt brood of 
iniquities and crimes. 

Is it a question of small importance which at this 
point confronts us? Is there not evidence that a well- 
organized and treasonable plot has been instituted 
against society, morality, and religion? Have so 
many human beings by accident fallen into line with 
such military precision? Setting aside the phenome- 
nal exhibitions of clairvoyance, animal magnetism, 
and deception, does it not seem that there is a skilful 
leader in the unseen background? Is not that spirit 
of deception unaccountable on natural grounds which 
leads husbands who love their wives, and wives who 
love their husbands, to turn their faces from one 
another, and set them as flint downward? which ex- 
cites in their hearts the dream that they cannot find 
in their own homes, and at their own firesides, the 
purest and deepest earthly felicity granted to mortals? 
Must not there be some controlling influence at work 
when men are led to curse church organizations with 
which they have been in communion, and which have 
never injured them? Is there any known natural 
cause which can account for the blasphemy that falls 
from the many lips whence but lately were uttered 


———————— os 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 223 


fervent prayers to Jehovah? Are such sudden changes 
sprung upon the race by accident? Can those who 
deny that the cause of this evil exists in the human 
heart, also claim that no cause of any kind exists? If 
not internal, must it not be external? Must not those 
who claim to see in this conduct and in these declara- 
tions only the evidence of human depravity, admit 
that it is a depravity which has an individual intelli- 
gence, apart from the subject it affects? Perhaps his- 
tory will throw some light upon these questions. 
Though the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Chal- 
deans, and the Greeks had their spirit-diviners ; though 
St. Jerome, one hundred and fifty years after Christ, 
mentions invocations of spirits as a fact which no one 
thought of disputing or doubting ; though Lactantius, 
in the third century, makes similar statements; and 
although there has been a belief in something of the 
kind in all ages, still, without much difficulty, can we 
not designate certain epochs of spiritual manifesta- 
tions, which, in importance and extent, pass entirely 
beyond the ordinary range of such things? The ter- 
rible displays of demoniacal possession which are 
recounted in the New Testament occurred just before 
and during the time of Christ. The period of German 
witchcraft arose just before the age of Luther. One 
hundred thousand persons were then executed. Witch- 
craft, or spiritualism, in England, made its appearance 
just prior to the great revival in the fifteenth century. 
Thirty thousand persons were then executed. Ameri- 
can witchcraft was at its height just before the great 
awakening under Edwards and other reformers. And 
the modern developments were started at Rochester, 


224 : CREDO. 


New York, just before the greatest revival which this 
country has ever known. Do not all these point in 
the same direction, and await what has not yet been 
given — a Satisfactory, scientific explanation? 

Men who deny all supernatural phenomena may 
assert that these people were deceived, — that Christ 
and his disciples, as well as St. Jerome, Martin Lu- 
ther, John Wesley, and Cotton Mather, were deluded. 
But is such a flat denial, for the purpose of avoiding 
an inevitable conclusion, the part of a true philoso- 
pher? Looking at these facts as they are, do they not 
indicate something besides random shots? Does not 
the curtain seem to conceal a chief actor? Looking 
upon present developments, and judging from past 
transactions, is not the world on the eve of some 
glorious religious movement? - May not a malevo- 
lent intelligence, now as before, flaunt his disap- 
probation in the face of society? The church of 
Christ is the last organization to take alarm at these 
things. 

Turn to sacred history. The possibility of satanic 
agency in spiritualism we base upon the Bible. It 
speaks unqualifiedly of demoniacal possession, though | 
it does not tell us what it is; of witchcraft, without 
describing it; of necromancy, without offering ex- 
planations ; and of those having familiar spirits, with- 
out disclosing their origin— whether they are from 
earth or hell. 

In the New Testament we are referred to Simon 
Magus, Elymas the sorcerer, and the young damsel 
from whom Paul cast out the spirit of divination. 
Had these persons lived in modern times, they would 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 225 


have passed for noted spiritual mediums. It is wor- 
thy of remark, also, that the Bible, in its reference to 
these practices, is distinguished from every other book 
of ancient date by its unvaried condemnation of them. 
It paints a doleful picture of demoniac Possession, it 
condemns all forms of witchcraft, and pronounces a 
lasting curse upon every necromancer. Listen to its 
solemn injunctions and commands: « Regard not 
them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after 
wizards: Iam the Lord your God.” (Lev. xix. 31.) 
‘And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar 
Spirits, and after wizards, I will even set my face’ 
against that soul, and will cut him off from among 
his people.” (Lev. xx. 6.) ‘And when they shall 
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar 
spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter, should 
not a people seek unto their God? for the living to 
the dead? To the law and to the testimony : if they 
speak not according to this word, it is because there 
is no light in them. ... And they shall look unto the 
earth, and behold trouble and darkness, dimness 
of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” 
(Isaiah viii. 19, 20, 22.) ‘ When thou art come into 
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou 
Shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those 
nations. There shall not be found among you any 
one that useth divination, or an observer of times, or 
an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter 
with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 
For all that do these things are an abomination unto 
the Lord: and because of these abothinations the 
Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 


r5 


226 CREDO. 


Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. For 
these nations, which thou. shalt possess, hearkened 
unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for 
thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to 
do.” (Deut. xviii. 9-14.) 

Do not these facts of history, and these representa- 
tions and commands of Scripture, leave the impression 
that communication with the invisible world is possi- 
ble, not only by the means of a pure life, but also 
through the agency of certain persons who have 
‘‘ familiar spirits,” are ** possessed of demons,” called 
‘¢ witches,” ‘‘ necromancers,’” and, in modern times, 
*‘ spiritual mediums”? Can any candid student of 
the Bible deny the possible presence of demons on 
earth and among men? Did not Christ frequently 
encounter them? Did he not often forbid them to 
speak? Did he not frequently address them person- 
ally, and apart from the individual in whom they 
dwelt? 

The word translated “hell,” in 2 Peter ii. 4, is 
“* Tartarus.” It occurs nowhere else in the Bible.— 
A large number of the most learned and critical com- 
mentators, including such names as Drs. Ramsey, 
Cudworth, Parkhurst, and Whately, together with 
the learned Grotius, agree that the word, in a physical 
sense, according to ancient classical writers, means the 
atmosphere of our earth. The passage then would 
read, ‘‘ God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast 
them down to the atmosphere of earth.” Our atmos- 
phere is a temporary home for demons. Satan him- 
self is ‘‘ the*prince of the power of the air.” Who 
that has lived in the world doubts it? Sad the lot 


SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, 227 


of mortals, did not angels of mercy visit and comfort 
them. 

While we can and ought to deny the supernatural 
agency of human spirits in the transactions of spirit- 
ualists, unless they have first become demonized, can 
we, with the Scriptures before us, also deny the agen- 
cy, or presence, of everything supernatural? Had we 
not better suffer ourselves to be led by the plain lan- 
guage and evident impressions of fact and revelation ? 
Have all these representations in the Scriptures no 
foundation? Have all the evils of Spiritualism in 
society no powerful cause acting in the background? 
Would it not seem that there must be an agency, — 
an active, intelligent, and malignant agency, — some- 
where? Have you visited “ the circle,” and received 
a message purporting to come from a mother or child, 
from father, husband, or wife? Be not deceived. May 
it not be something besides a message from the dead — 
even the sly and seductive, crafty and deadly voice of 
Satan, though clothed in salutations gentle as those 
of a mother? 

‘‘ For seven years,” says Dr. P. B. Randolph, once 
a noted, but subsequently a reformed spiritualist, ‘ I 
held daily intercourse with what purported to be my 
mother’s spirit. I am now firmly persuaded that it 
was nothing but an evil spirit and infernal demon, 
who, in that guise, gained my soul’s confidence, and 
led me to the very brink of ruin.’ « Five of my 
friends,” he continues, ‘ destroyed themselves, and I 
once attempted it, by direct spiritual influence. Every 
crime in the calendar has been committed by mortals 
moved by these viewless beings! Adultery, fornica- 


228 CREDO. 


tion, suicides, desertions, unjust divorces, prostitution, 
abortion, insanity —I charge all these upon them!” 
Do such fruits spring from a mother’s counsel? Can 
sweet fountains send forth such bitter waters? Can 
good trees yield such corrupt fruits? Can any ob- 
server fail to see that there is in spiritualism a per- 
sonal agency at work, under covert, to accomplish the 
subversion of all things good? If there be a personal 
devil, could he do more to alienate the world from 
Christ than is being done by this order of ‘‘ free- 
thinkers” ? 

So far as there is anything supernatural in spirit- 
ualism, we can trace the system home to its fountain- 
head — the abode infernal. In the ‘darkened circle,” 
man stands in another world; face to face with super- 
natural and malevolent beings — demons. 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 


‘© When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness 
that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and 


right, he shall save his soul alive. 
«‘T have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith 


the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” 


Ezekiel xviii. 27, 32. 
‘«¢ Without me ye can do nothing.” ‘fohkn xv. 5. 


“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of 
his good pleasure.” P£rlippians ii. 12, 13. 

‘Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” 
Sohn iii. 7. 

‘‘T need a cleansing change within ; 
My life must once again begin: 
New hope I need, and youth renewed, 
And more than human fortitude; 
New faith, new love, and strength to cast 


Away the fetters of the past.” 
HARTLEY COLERIDGE. 


(230) 


I, 


CONVERSION. 


ve a day of toil passed amid the busy scenes 

of a public feast at Jerusalem, our Saviour re- 
tired in the evening for the purpose of prayer or 
repose. From the reading, we infer that it was near 
or past midnight, when he was waited upon by a 
Jewish senator of high standing, who desired an in- 
terview with him. This visitor had been convinced, 
from the miracles and public teachings of Christ, that 
he was no ordinary personage, — that he must be, at 
least, a prophet sent of God. He felt, with many 
other devout Jews, the utter inefficiency of the forms 
and life of the Jewish religion. He consequently 
came to this new teacher for the instruction he desired 
and felt he needed. A constitutional timidity, and the 
avowed scorn of most of the Jewish rulers towards 
Jesus, easily account for the secrecy of the midnight 
Visit. 

To what hour the interview was protracted we are 
not informed. Of the various subjects discussed we 
are ignorant. Here, as elsewhere in the Gospels, only 

(231) 


232 CREDO. 


the chief points, those which are vital in affecting the 
right development of character for the eternal future, 
are recorded. The great principle set forth, and the 
one around which the entire conversation was made 
to revolve, is the direct and positive announcement 
of Christ respecting the necessity of conversion. The 
declaration is full of mingled pathos and moral gran- 
deur. It involves the posscbzlity and absolute neces- 
sity of ‘conversion,’ ‘* change of heart,” or ‘new 
birth,” as the commencement of the supernatural life 
has been variously termed. 

There is a theological distinction between conver- 
sion and regeneration. Conversion is strictly a hu- 
man act, in accordance with a divine requirement: it 
is a duty. Regeneration is strictly an experience 
begun and completed through divine agency: itisa 
gift from God. The old definition is a good one: 
‘Regeneration is a change wrought in man by the 
Holy Spirit, by which the dominion of sin is broken, 
so that, with free choice of will, he serves God.” 3 thy 

The strictest analysis would require a separate — 
treatment of ‘‘conversion,” ‘ renewal,” ‘‘ regenera- 
tion,” and ‘ sanctification.” We intentionally over- 
look these technical differences, and shall regard the 
‘new life” in its completeness. The schoolmen and 
the ecclesiastical fathers did this. Christ and his dis- 
ciples invariably pursued the same course. 

A change of character, analogous to that of the 
new birth or life, ts possible, and of frequent 
occurrence. ‘This proposition hardly needs the sup- 
port of an argument. Most men have experienced 
the change of feeling and of character which is pro- 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 233 


duced by advancing years and the ever-changing out- 
ward condition of things. In process of time, a man’s 
likes and dislikes may be constitutionally revolution- . 
ized. Our personal identity remains the same; that 
is, henceforth eternal; but the character, of necessity, 
changes. Character is that which decides what we 
are, and marks us out, individually, from all others. 
We pass through a crowded thoroughfare. We 
meet multitudes going hither and thither. We look 
into their faces, and they into ours. We pass them, 
never to pass them again, and reach our journey’s end. 
We are affected by all this. We are not the same in 
our feelings and character after the journey that we 
were when we commenced it: we are better or worse. 
There is no restoration to former conditions. Every 
evening, when the sun falls in the west, we are not 
only not in space and duration where we were when 
it rose in the east, but we have become a part of all 
we have met; changed by every impression, given and 
received. This is the reiterated story of every morn- 
ing and every evening to every man and child. With- 
out a renewal of our conditional or naturalization cer- 
tificates, we cannot perform the parts assigned us. 
Men must really, vitally, mentally, morally, and, 
in a limited sense, spiritually, be Jorn again daily. 
The thing is possible; it takes place; it is not Chris- 
tian regeneration, but approaches and partially illus- 
trates the meaning of the command of Christ to 
Nicodemus, ‘‘ Ye must be born again ;” or, by a more 
correct translation, “‘ Ye must be born from above.” 
This ordinary change of character, like evangelical 
conversion, may be gradual and partial, or immediate, 


234 CREDO. 


entire, and absolute. We enter a home to-day glad- 
dened with the prattle of childhood, where every 
‘member of the household is wearing the smile of life, 
health, and joy. We may be called a week hence to 
enter the same home, and to enter it because the song 
and music of a week before have been hushed. We 
shall feel the hand of the strong man tremble in our 
grasp, and fail to see the veiled face of one who would 
hide a mother’s love and grief from the world. Then 
and there will be brought to pass the saying written, 
‘‘ While the sun, or the light,... or the stars be not dark- 
ened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day 
when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the 
strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders 
cease, and they that look out of the windows be dark- 
ened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets: ... 
because man goeth to his long home, and the mourn- 
ers go about the streets.” That is not the same house- 
hold of the former week, but another. The name.on 


the door is not changed; the local relations are the~ 


same; the surrounding ornamental trees cast the same 
refreshing shade, and the fragrance of the rose finds 
its way into the same halls: but that bit of crape 
hanging at the window, or pendent at the door, is 
the symbol of another home. The looks, the speech, 
the thoughts, the future plans and life-motives are 
changed; in certain respects they are entirely revolu- 
tionized. A moment has done the work. 

In some cases the mourners know not where to 
direct their weary pathway. They have been, or are, 
born again into new scenes, and days of grief and 
sorrow. During the pangs of the change, God some- 


es 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 235 


times sets apart the household from the world for a 
season. It is an awful blow —a shock whose effect 
remains for life; in some cases even deepening — the 
pebble dropped, and the wave continuing. 


‘* Our house is emptied of delight; 
It is no more the house of joy 
That once shone with his presence bright, 
That echoed to his laughter light, 
His bounding step upon the stair, 
His joyous accents everywhere: 
It is no more our home without our boy.” 


What is true here, and to the extent discussed, is 
true still farther, and to such an extent, under these and 
other circumstances, that an entire change may take 
place, so radical, that a man will hate what he once 
loved, and love what he once hated. Human charac- 
ter is capable of this change. It is not an uncommon, 
we were about to say not a difficult, step from one ex- 
treme of like or dislike to another. Who has not found 
himself loving the company, services, and surrounding 
circumstances which he once loathed? Who has not 
followed back, with equal zest and pleasure, the path 
he walked in the outward journey of life? A young 
man, who had wasted a large patrimony in a profli- 
gate life, while hanging over the brow of a precipice 
from which he had determined to throw himself, and 
for which purpose he had gone thither, formed a 
counter-purpose — that he would return to his home, 
and regain what he had lost. It was all the work of 
a minute. The purpose he had then formed he kept. 
He began his new life by shovelling a load of coal 


236 : | CREDO. 


into a cellar; he proceeded, step by step, until he had 
more than regained what he had lost, and died a mil- 
lionnaire. In a worldly sense, he was converted. 
This is not a solitary, but a representative, case. 
There are thousands like him in their resolves and 
efforts, if not in their success. 

These facts demonstrate the possibility of a radical 
and sudden change of life and character. This, then, 
is our reply to the objection urged by so many re- 
specting the unreasonableness and impossibility of 
such a change, that nothing is more common, or 
more necessary, in life, than a change, — than a con- 
version from one class of feelings to another, — from 
one state of character to another, — from one condi- 
tion of life to another, — from being influenced by one 
class of motives to being influenced by an entirely 
different class, — from being born once to being born 
again. When this conversion is commenced through 
religious motives, and is carried on by divine agency, 
then it becomes religious, instead of social conver- 
sion. This constitutes the vital difference between 
the two. 

A change of character not only analogous to, but 
one involving all the conditions of the new birth, as 
enjoined by our Saviour upon this Fewish ruler, and 
as taught by evangelical Christianity, ts both possi= 
ble and of frequent occurrence. In discussing this 
statement, our first endeavor should be to ascertain, if 
possible, the exact meaning of the terms employed. 
The language of Christ to the ruler is, of course, figu- 
rative, but is no less forcible, explicit, and beautiful. 
It was a law among the Israelites, that a foreigner, 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 237 


before he could become a Jewish citizen, must pass 
through certain ceremonies, and take upon himself cer- 
tain obligations. This being done, he was ever after- 
wards admitted to the rights and privileges of Jewish 
citizenship. His first birth was thus overlooked. He 
was regarded as born again in Judea. Our term 
naturalization * has been employed to express, with 
peculiar force and clearness, the same idea, the 
transaction being that process by which a citizen of 
another country becomes as if born jn this. For all 
real and practical purposes he is native born. With 
this interpretation, we see the force and point of the 
Saviour’s question, “Art thou a master in Israel, and 
knowest not these things?” The additional phrase, 
‘born of water and the Spirit,” need not involve 
us in any fresh difficulty. It presents merely the 
agency producing the change, — the Spirit of God, — 
and the water, which is only employed as the symbol 
of the change ; useless in itself; useful only as a public 
testimonial, and necessary only in the fulfilment of a 
positive command. Collecting all these thoughts, we 
may present this as the literal meaning of our Saviour’s 
address to Nicodemus. The new birth, or the birth 
from above, is the conformation of the life and prac- 
tices of the individual, through the agency of the Holy 
Ghost, to the laws of Christ’s kingdom. It is chan- 
ging the allegiance from one ruler to another. It is the 
man who has been serving the kingdom of this world 
becoming naturalized and serving the kingdom of 
God... Or, holding ourselves more closely to the 


* Bushnell. 


238 CREDO. 


figure of a birth from above, the principle taught by 
our Saviour may be presented thus: The Holy Ghost, 
if admitted into the soul, and if cherished there, begets 
a new and divine life, which is subsequently developed, 
and which manifests itself through the sensibilities, 
intellect, and will. The different conditions expressed 
by the terms “‘ conversion,” ‘‘ justification,” and ** sanc- 
tification,” begin at the same instant. But not until 
the old man gives way entirely to this new one, not 
until the subject is really and vitally a new creation 
throughout does the work reach its completion. It is 
then called extire sanctification. Why need writers 
mystify so simple a subject? 

Let us pause for a moment to answer one or two 
questions which naturally arise when this theme is 
presented. Is the change zzstantaneous? If pressed 
for the answer, we should say, yes, theoretically. The 
change from a wrong principle and motive in life to a 
right one, from partial to entire purity, must be instan- 
taneous. But practically there may be, or there may 
not be, a comscéousness of any such sudden transition. 
Conversion is never a development, but is a crzszs in 
every instance, perceived or unperceived. Sometimes 
it is so startling, the conviction of sin so deep, the 
relief so overwhelming, that the subject with unmis- 
takable accuracy can designate the very day and the 
hour when this change took place. He can answer 
the question, ‘‘Where were you converted?” as readily 
as ‘‘ Where did you go to college?” ‘* Where were you 
born?” said an English bishop to Summerfield. ‘*In 
Dublin and Liverpool,” he answered. ‘‘ Were you 
born in ¢wo places?” said the bishop. ‘‘Art thou a 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 239 


master in Israel, and knowest not these things?” re- 
plied Summerfield. The conversion of such a person 
is like the phenomenon which would occur should the 
sun rise suddenly at midnight, appearing at once on the 
meridian, standing there, or moving ever onward, 
without eclipse and without cloud. 

On the other hand, the change sometimes takes 
place in such a manner that the subject only knows 
by the review of months, and possibly years, that he 
is not the man he was. Itis, perhaps, more frequently 
the case that the light struggles for a season with the 
darkness; doubt is mingled with hope; clouds hang 
about the horizon, or even shut in the heavens, with 
only an occasional glimmer of light. With the ma- 
jority of people in a Christian land, conversion is like 
the dawning of the morning in the east, in which the 
change from deep night to commencing day can 
scarcely be marked. It is so gradual that you can 
select no points, or sudden advances, until the sun 
appears. The beholder knows it was once dark: he 
knows equally well that it is now light. ‘One thing 
I know,” exclaimed the blind man to the hard ques- 
tions of the Pharisees — ‘that whereas I was blind, 
now I see.” The child, learning the alphabet, may 
not know when it is mastered. The thing of impor- 
tance is, can he read? 

So far as the soundness or the crisis of conversion 
is concerned, it makes no difference whether it js like 
the ‘torrent frozen in mid air,” the «“ lightnings pin- 
ioned while playing across the clouds,”’ or like the 
slow and gradual development of childhood into man- 
hood. The only question that need concern us is, 


240 CREDO. 


whether or not the heart is now devoted to God and 
to his service? Has there been a change of character 
or of citizenship? Are the chief interests transferred 
from this to the world to come? Have the sins with 
which he was laden disappeared? Does the man 
know that a change —a spiritual change — has actu- 
ally taken place? Is the soul roused to its true dig- 
nity? If so, that is enough. The man has been 
converted. With no time specified, ‘* without a form 
to signalize it, without a whisper to proclaim it to 
the world, there will be joy in heaven.” * 

But must not this change, if radical, be attended 
with great distress of mind, or tumult of heart and 
conscience, before, and with a thrilling joy, which re- 
creates the world, during and immediately after con- 
version? These experiences may occur, and they may 
not. They may, and they may not, be any part of 
conversion. They are dependent upon the constitu- 
tional tendencies of the man, and upon his previous 
life. The highwayman, arrested by God’s spirit while 
in the act of murder, will, most likely, have a tumul- 
tuous experience. It will differ entirely from that of 
the innocent child starving by the road-side. There 
will be discovered precisely the same differences in 
experiencing this change that occur in the events of 
practical life. No two persons wiil, or can, appear 
precisely the same under the same circumstances, 
whatever these circumstances may be. 

Take the common illustration: Two sisters lose a 
much-loved brother. In the bosom of each there will 


* Phelps. 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 241 


be a deep sense of loss, and loneliness, but the amount 
and kind of emotion at the grave may be very differ- 
ent. In the one will be seen the gush of tears, while 
not a tear moistens the cheek of the other. The one 
will turn away from the silent grave with outbursting 
sorrow, the other in silence, but with a cold, dark 
mountain upon her heart. One mother may never 
weep, whose sorrow is as intense as that of her who 
is bathed in tears at the slightest sickness of her child. 
These manifestations are the result of constitutional 
tendencies. They argue nothing, one way or another, 
as to the soundness of conversion. Conversion is not 
a question of smiles or tears, of sunshine or clouds. 
It is not a question of this or that emotion or feeling, 
any more than it is one of time and place. It is a 
simple question of a change of character through a 
divine agency, induced by religious motives, without 
regard to the time or the manner of its accomplish- 
ment. It is, therefore, the sheerest folly to attempt to 
force every religious experience into the same mould. 
It cannot be stereotyped. To give directions in each 
individual case respecting how a man must or must 
not fee/, is the last business of the preacher. If any 
person waits to have a religious experience exactly 
like that of some one else, he will wait forever with- 
out receiving it. There are no exact repetitions. If 
you find them, one is a counterfeit. Seize the hand 
of Christ in your own way ; Step forth; all will 
be well. 

But, again, it is asked, Is this birth from above 
such that we can always decide correctly whether 
the individual who makes the profession has, in 

16 


242 CREDO. 


reality, experienced the change? Will the conduct, 
at all times, unmistakably foreshadow it? Is the mark 
always in the forehead? Go to the dress parade of a 
regiment. There are the soldiers, — under the same 
uniform, obeying the same commands, equally prompt 
and equally perfect in their execution. That is what 
appears to the eye. But the principle involved iv 
the new birth looks at nothing of this. It strikes off, 
or rather through, the uniform, munitions, and arms, 
and with the eye of God stares at the heart. It sees 
more than passes under the human eye. There is 
the same apparent obedience among the men; but 
one is a traitor, who will betray the command for 
thirty pieces of silver; another is a deserter, who 
leaves his companion alone in the long march and 
deadly encounter. But another, whose outward con- 
duct for a time is no more commendable, is a patriot, 
who is ready, at every point and at every moment 
of peril, to throw his blood and life into the defences 
of the nation. Hearts! Hearts made right in the 
sight of God, — that is important. The uniform un- 
der which they may chance to beat is unimportant. 
Thus conversion, in many instances, may not 
much change the outward conduct; that depends 
upon what the conduct has hitherto been. The 
employment may not be changed. The farmer, 
merchant, and fisherman, may remain the farmer, 
merchant, and fisherman still. But the heart-alle- 
giance is changed. Conversion plants in the breast 
of every soldier the heart of a patriot —one that 
loves, serves, and will defend the celestial country 
and kingdom. God knows—we do not — whether 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 243 


all those who are professing to follow Christ, who are 
acknowledged as Christians, are such in fact. The 
principle upon which he makes his decision is not 
that there has been an artificial, superficial, or ap- 
parent change in the outward department merely. 
He requires a radical and thorough change of the 
heart. All that we can say is this: If the old life 
in the man has given place to the life from above; if 
the old man is put off, and the new man put on; if the 
soul is pervaded, illumined, swayed, exalted, empow- 
ered with that which will finally glorify it, and make 
the man a temple suitable for the spirit and truth of 
God; if the soul is seized with, or has come into quiet 
possession of, that kind of* inspiration which causes 
the inclinations to run the way of its duty, so that the 
service and love of God have become natural; if the 
man has left the broad and dusty road, and entered 
the narrow and cool path which winds up among the 
hills of God to Paradise, — then he is born from above 
by the spirit, presence, and power of the Highest. He 
has entered upon the awful but glorious journey of a 
blissful immortality, and is leading, not a natural, but 
a supernatural life through a Redeemer. 

Ls this experience practically, as well as theorets- 
cally, possible? ‘+ One fact,” Fox was accustomed to 
say, ‘is worth a thousand arguments.” There lived 
in Jerusalem, during the early years of Christianity, 
a man who at first persecuted the doctrines of Christ 
with the greatest vehemence. He bound and put in 
prison both men and women for their belief, and by 
torture compelled many to blaspheme. Afterwards, 
however, this man was found preaching Christ with 


244 CREDO. 


more ardor than any of the apostles, though for it he 
was tormented and cruelly persecuted, both by pagans 
and Jews. He exhibited, after a given day and hour, 
the most active and devoted Christian career which 
the world has ever seen, save one. He at last closed 
and crowned his eventful life by martyrdom, for the 
Same cause he once persecuted. Who that has made 
himself familiar with the life of this man, Paul, can 
doubt that he had been converted, not in sentiment, 
not by development or selfculture, not by some 
scheme of ethics or social reorganization, but by a 
spiritual power, that regenerates and saves. Was it 
hypocrisy or enthusiasm, — was it a frantic fear of 
death, or a sentimental spiritualism, — which wrought 
this change? No; this was a case of evangelical 
conversion. That man was changed, entirely, radi- 
cally, and instantly changed by the power of God. 
In this instance development plays no part; it is  cri- 
sis” throughout. But why pause to multiply illustra- 
tions? The world is full of them. They are not ideal 
pictures, but real events ; not theoretical, or rhetorical, 
but practical experiences; not a representation of what 
may take place, but of what has taken place, and is 
taking place, throughout the world, daily. Men can 
actually love the scenes and associates which they once 
hated, and will do what they would once have thought 
themselves incapable of doing. Lawyers, judges, and 
senators, preaching Christ in our streets and churches, 
are noble and convincing illustrations. Men can be 
changed from selfish to benevolent men; from doing 
nothing to please God to doing everything to please 
him; from having nothing in common with Christ 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 245 


to having everything in common with him. If to-day 
aman is hard, unyielding, and uncharitable, he may 
to-morrow, through the grace of God, become kind, 
not easily provoked, bearing all things, enduring all 
things. And if he can become such, who will say 
he ought not? There is but one way, it is true, in 
which this can be accomplished. There must be 
some higher assistance, some guidance of God, or 
we fail. Every practical and serious desire of the 
soul for salvation is awakened from above. Regener- 
ation is, in the broadest sense, a ‘birth from above.” 
It can be accomplished, for God stands at every man’s 
threshold. And accomplished it must be, or the king- 
dom of heaven is lost. 

Lhe new birth, as enjoined by our Saviour, ts not 
only reasonable and Posstble, but, tn case of every one 
who has come to years of accountability, and has 
wandered one step from the path of truth and duty, 
2s absolutely necessary. 

The supernatural life is supernaturally enjoined. 
It is not, Ye may be born again if ye choose, or if 
ye find it convenient, but, “* Ye must be born again.” 
“Det gennethenat” (infinitive aorist) denotes a re- 
quirement more fixed and absolute than a direct 
imperative. It expresses a condition which admits 
of no question. It has all the force of a settled past 
fact. No alternative in its presence can stand for a 
moment. Our Saviour could not have employed 
such language, unless he meant that we shall be lost 
inevitably, without this second birth, But, you say, 
{ am morally upright. My character is above re- 
proach. Shall I suffer in the future life even if I do 


246 CREDO. 


not become religious here? Will God stand on exact 
and rigid terms with me; is he not a Father? We 
will not stop to argue the case. Christ, in whom we 
find no disposition to hardness or harshness, who 
came directly from God, who knew the mind which 
is in God, who evidently understood what is necessary 
for man better than he does himself, that Being of 
such truthfulness, candor, and solicitude, says that 
the birth from above and the life supernatural are 
absolutely indispensable. Where, then, remains the 
ground for argument? Does not the entire claim 
against the necessity of conversion and a supernatural 
life either deny or ignore every word that fell from 
the lips of Christ on this subject? Is it not reckless 
beyond comparison thus to disregard his authority, 
especially when the exigencies of our condition were 
felt so keenly that he unhesitatingly died for us? 

The truthful and solemn convictions of the human 
soul bear witness to the words of Christ. None are 
born Christians. New blood must be infused in all 
our veins. Every prince, peasant, master, slave; 
every rich and every poor man the world over; every 
one who stands with the multitude in the street; and 
every traveller, lonely and lost at night, with none but 
God near him,— feels the absolute necessity of con- 
version to a higher life. What stronger earthly claim 
can confront them? Reflection always results in a 
conviction that wherever heaven is, or whatever it 
is, it is not adapted to a natural heart and life. If 
one visits a regal palace, he clothes himself in his 
best attire. Rags are not admitted. No one thinks 
of presenting them. The most exalted condition of 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 247 


character possible is alone suitable to enter the firm- 
est, the grandest, and the sublimest spot in the uni- 
verse of God — the visible kingdom of heaven. Nay, 
that place sought for in many forbidden ways, sighed 
for by all amid the surrounding ills of life, — that 
resting-place, that embodiment of bliss and repose, 
that ideal of every heart never yet reached, that glo- 
rious home of God, — is felt to be absolutely beyond 
. man’s reach without a change of character. The 
change which is felt to be necessary is not a trivial 
one. It involves the work of a divine creation. It 
is a change which is equivalent to a resurrection from 
the dead. It requires the same omnipotent agency. 
‘*Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard 
his spots?” No! But the renewing agency of the 
Holy Ghost can do it. 

When, therefore, the teachings of Christ, requiring 
that we be born of “ water and the SAzrzt,” are so 
positively confirmed by the deep and solemn intuitions 
of the soul, where is the chance for additional argu- 
ment? Or, rather, what argument outweighs them? 
The giant hand, which is stretched forth into the joys 
and thoughts of life, which writes, with prophetic 
finger, upon the walls of every house, ‘ Without this 
divine birth and life, weighed and found wanting,”— 
that hand breaks in twain every iron link of logic 
forged to bind it, and in its freedom casts from itself 
all the silver chains of rhetoric that sceptics have 
thrown about it. The solemn declarations which 
were laid across the path of Nicodemus are laid 
across every path. If we move, we meet or pass 
them. This universal and obtrusive visitor is not 


248 CREDO. 


easily dismissed. He is not partial. The hand that 
knocked at the door of that Jewish ruler’s heart 
knocks at all hearts. 

The more one studies this law of a new birth, the 
more will he see that it is an eternal principle. We 
cannot make it otherwise if we would. There is no 
power which can annul it. “Ifa retreating army,” 
Says some writer, ‘‘ wants to cross a frozen river, the 
ice will not put off dissolving, but will run into the 
liquid state at a certain exact point of temperature. 
If a man wants to live, there is yet some diseased 
speck of matter, it may be in his brain or heart, which 
no microscope even could detect, and by that speck, 
or because of it, he will die at a certain exact time, 
which ‘time will not be delayed for a day, simply be- 
cause it is only a speck. Is, then, character a matter 
that God will treat more loosely? How certainly 
will any expectation of heaven, based on the looseness 
of God, and the confidence that he will stand for no 
very exact terms, issue in dreadful disappointment! ” 

Do not the advocates of a universal and indiscrim- 
inate heaven misapprehend: the real character of God? 
Have they any ground for the belief that he is a free 
and easy, loose and careless being?* Is there any- 
thing loose in the realms about us, in the flying stars 
or rolling suns? Does not God weigh every atom, 
and fashion every rain and dew-drop with surprising 
care, and by the same eternal law with which he 
formed the sun and bound together the universe? 
Does not every particle under his care assume the 


* Bushnell. 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 249 


dignity of a world? His kingdom is order and law. 
There is no smuggling into place, or out of place. 
His police force is immense. He is kind, but exact; 
exact because he must be. The universe would be 
ground to powder were he not thus. Can his heaven, 
then, be an admixture of good and evil? a conglom- 
erate formation of genuine Christians and heartless 
murderers, of devoted saints and debased sensualists ? 
Must there not be a right hand, a left hand, a gulf, a 
definite line drawn? Will there not be those who are 
born from above and those who are not, those who are 
striving and those who are not, those who have fol- 
lowed the path seen by no vulture’s eye and those 
who have followed the broad path thronged by many 
feet? Let us not be mistaken. The line is a broad 
one ; there will be no difficulty in making a final sepa- 
ration. On the one hand, there will be a change of 
purpose — final, total, and Sweeping; on the other, 
intentional disobedience ;— on the one hand Nicode- 
mus inquiring, ‘How can these things be?” and 
lingering in the presence of Christ until he speaks, 
and the difficulties vanish. On the other, Pilate in- 
quiring, ‘‘ What is truth?” and pausing only to shut 
and bolt the door against it. So far as man is con- 
cerned, it is a matter of willingness or unwillingness, 
of simple fitness or unfitness, of right or wrong. It 
is a turning from death to life. So far as God is 
concerned, it is an absolute requisition made upon his 
mercy to recreate a natural but willing heart. Both 
God and man must act, or there will be perpetual 
anarchy. If men are unyielding, they will be ban- 
ished. If God withholds his assistance, he will be 


250 CREDO. 


dethroned. Through a combined effort the impeni- 
tent man must become contrite, the proud humble, 
the unkind kind, the unfaithful faithful. The father, 
whose presence strikes terror into the hearts of his 
children, must become affectionate. In fine, sinful 
men must become Christians, or their exclusion from 
heaven is inevitable. It must be so. Christ knew it 
must be so, or he would have told us otherwise. Our 
part of the work is not difficult. 

Say we will obey him, and the seed from heaven 
will fall into the heart — seed which ripens for immor- 
tality. The seed is ever upon the palm of the sower. 
No heart is so bad, so oppressed with sin, so care- 
worn, that it cannot be made cheerful as the blush 
of morning. If it is opened to the truth of God, the 
blood of Christ will bound through it in a new birth. 
We need not wait to ask how this can be done, 
whether chiefly by natural or gracious ability. We 
need not wait to comprehend the true theory of the 
atonement. God can implant gems and gold in 
the barren rock. He has done it. That is enough. 
When man is obedient, and has done all he can do, 
then he is to wait and see the salvation of God; an 
explanation of the theories will come afterwards. A 
supernatural life can only be discerned supernaturally. 
Only those of the fold know the voice. Without the 
fold is danger. 


Se ae 
Bo sige ihre’; t 
a? tee hie . : 


“ 


- 


» 
i Us aed f tet atv ) * 


a 6, , 


“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. 

““Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. By what law? 
of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. 

“Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith 
without the deeds of the law. 

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God for- 
bid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans iii. 23, 27, 28, 31. 


“Ye see, then, how that by works a man is justified, and 
not by faith only. 

“Yea, aman may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: 
show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee 
my faith by my works.” ames ii. 24, 18. 


‘That is the word of faith which we preach: That if thou 
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be- 
lieve in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, 
thou shalt be saved. 

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, 


and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 
Romans x. 8-10. 


(252) 


i ei. te 


If. 


THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 


AS RELATED TO FAITH, WORKS, AND THE 
ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 


‘** The Lord wants keepers. O, mount up 
Before the night comes, and says, Too late! 
Stay not for taking scrip or cup; 
The Master hungers while ye wait.” LowELL. 


HERE are various theories of salvation, all of 
which have able preachers to advocate, and 
influential societies to support them. Let us examine 
a few of the leading views, or rather some of the 
questions growing out of them. 

Our definitions will be brief. Faith is believing 
with the heart unto righteousness; Works are the 
result of effort; and Salvation is man’s deliverance 
from actual sin in this world, and from its conse- 
quences in the world to come. 

Are men made religious, and finally saved, by 
virtue of believing? While mingling with Christian 

(253) 


254 CREDO. 


people, we frequently hear these expressions: ‘TI 
wish to go to heaven by way of the cross ;” “through 
the blood of Christ; or, ‘ by looking to Calvary.” 
This is wonderful language. Originally, it implied 
the highest type of Christianity; but upon the lips 
of many it has become religious cant, and to the ears 
of many it bepseaks religious hypocrisy. 

Examine the expressions separately for a moment. 
‘By the way of the cross.” The deep and essential 
meaning of the cross, in an evangelical sense, is not 
two pieces of wood crossed, but is a struggle towards 
a right life, which, in this world, is necessarily a cross- 
bearing life. One may look to the cross, in a physical 
or intellectual sense, until his hair is white and his eyes 
dim ; he may talk eloquently about it until his lips are 
palsied or lifeless; it will avail nothing. Men must 
be willing to walk as well as talk — willing to walk 
the hard and flinty path with our Saviour. It is one 
thing to wear the form of the cross as an adorning 
about the neck, to place it on the steeples of churches, 
to handle it with hands, but quite another thing to 
display the spirit of it and of Christ in the life. Go 
to heaven ‘‘ by the way of the cross,” clinging to it 
with devotion, hailing it wherever met, though it costs 
self-sacrifice, agony, blood, and death. ‘* The way of 
the cross” — what a world of meaning is involved in 
those few words! How far we are from apprehend- 
ing its essential and majestic meaning! 

Equally suggestive is the expression — ‘+I wish to 
be saved through the blood of Christ.” Bengel, who 
was somewhat in advance of many of his age, says, 
‘*The mere hearing and speaking of the wounds of 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 255 


Jesus end in nought but words. There are those 
who only zame Christ, and never vow him. They 
make the blood of Christ an opiate to apply to con- 
science.” The criticism of Mr. Emerson is just, though 
severe: ‘* The thing Christ meant and willed when on 
earth is in essence more with them [certain infidels and 
atheists] than with those of their opponents who only 
wear and misrepresent the name of Christ; like the 
son of the vine-dresser in the gospel, who said, * No,’ 
and went, while the other said, ‘ Yea, and went not.” 
Many who say “No” are laboring hard in the vine- 
yard. Many who continually say, “I go, sir,” are not 
found in the master’s vineyard from one year’s end to 
another. One may as well be an honest atheist as an 
unfaithful nominal, Christian. ‘+ Whither of the twain 
did the will of his father?” inquired our Saviour. 
“They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, 
Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the har- 
lots go into the kingdom of God before you.” 

Men must learn to judge of their religion by their 
purpose to serve God, rather than by their emotions ; 
by their spirit, rather than by their professions. It 
should never be overlooked, that to take Christ into 
homes and hearts, to clothe and feed him, though in 
the form of a weary stranger, is better than to say a 
thousand times, we love him. The supernatural life 
is not one of words, but of faith and deeds. Paul 
was saved himself, and believed others could be, but 
only by the blood applied. He was ready to live or 
die — ready for anything. That was a significant de- 
vice on an ancient coin—a bullock between an altar 
and a plough, with the inscription underneath, ‘* Ready 


256 CREDO. 


for either ”— ready for life or death, for service or sac- 
rifice. 

When one thinks of the blood of Christ, it should 
not be in such a manner as to make him feel, if im- 
penitent, that he has taken a dose of opium, or inhaled 
chloroform. The gospel is not soporific, but is of the 
nature of a stirring and thrilling appeal, which some- 
times cuts to the quick, like a sword double-edged. 
Christians dwell in the regions of principalities and 
powers, not of shadows and semblances. It is not the 
blood flowing on or from the cross that saves, unless 
it has also reached the individual, and unless he has 
added, or is ready to add, his own life-blood to the 
stream which washes away the sin of the world. It is 
not the cry, ‘ Lord, Lord,” that saves. Many, with 
that word upon their lips, shall be banished. A self. 
sacrificing spirit is the only one which can hope to be 
saved by the blood of the cross. Such is the life 
begotten of God. Where, then, it is asked, is faith? 
Much of it is dead! ‘It is vain; ye are yet in your 
sins,’ was Paul’s decision. Such formality excludes 
Spiritual vitality. Let the apostle’s life interpret his 
theory and expound his meaning. “TI die daily :” 
that is saving faith; that is showing faith by works. 
“Tam crucified with Christ, and yet I live:” that is 
practical or New Testament Christianity. To die 
daily is immortality. 

We pass to another phase: ‘I wish to be saved, or 
T expect to be saved, by looking to Calvary.” This 
lenguage is also of solemn import. It should never 
be employed carelessly or heedlessly. It means infi- 
nitely more than remaining in the distance, and look- 


— a 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 257 


ing at suffering, or looking upon Jesus hanging on Cal- 
vary. It is one thing to stand in the valley, gaze 
upon and go into ecstasies over a lofty mountain 
range, and quite another and different thing to clam- 
ber up its sides. The one is easy enough, the other 
costs something. The Christian religion does not 
consist in the exclamations of, ‘‘O, beautiful! O, 
glorious!” Is heaven thus secured? That would be 
an easy, and very convenient journey thither. The 
priest and Levite came and looked upon suffering — 
the suffering traveller by the way-side. Was there 
virtue in that? In that, rather, was guilt. It was 
the Samaritan, hastening to the side of the dying 
man, binding up his wounds, and bringing him to 
the inn, who was on the road to heaven by the way 
of Calvary. That is the piety Christ recognized. 
That is faith shown by works. A multitude of 
priests, scribes, and Levites, Jewish people and Ro- 
man soldiers, looked upon Calvary when Christ hung 
there. Was there virtue in that? No more, no less, 
than there is in all religion which ends in professions. 
Nominal Christians employ expedients and catch at 
shadows. They think they have the hidden life, but 
will not come to Christ that they might have it. The 
lofty claims of the life supernatural are never satisfied 
by receiving sentimental compliments and pleasant 
smiles. A Christian must look upon Calvary until he 
is transformed.-into it, in order to be saved by it. 
Those thrilling and hope-inspiring expressions — 
“‘by the way of the cross,” “through the blood of 
Christ,” and the like— should come from the lips of 
those only who are struggling for a right life, and 


17 


258 CREDO. 


who are manifesting daily the spirit of Christ. They 
are eloquent pleadings only when heard from the lips 
of those who are consciously lost without the help of 
Christ, and who are seeking salvation through his 
atonement. If the expressions have become senti- 
mentalized, let the church at once restore their ma- 
jestic import. The mouth of the sceptic should no 
longer be fed by misrepresentations of evangelical 
Christianity. Let his voice be silenced by the earnest 
declarations of every Christian, that though justifica- 
tion rests solely on the broad principle of faith, still the 
conditions of human salvation do by no means stand 
upon imaginary or puerile foundations, but upon the 
absolute possession of the spirit of Christ — that spirit 
which ministers to the poor, which heals the sick, 
and feeds the hungry. That spirit which lays its 
hand upon him who has fallen among thieves, raises 
him up, heals, and comforts him. That spirit which 
seeks to save the world, which seeketh not her own, 
which suffereth long and is kind, which is Christ on 
earth again, but this time in the person of his fol- 
lower. <A spirit so simple that a little child may un- 
derstand and practise it in the division of his apple 
to a destitute companion. A spirit which is old as 
eternity, and sublime as God, which has its home in 
His bosom. That spirit on which is based the religion 
of every inhabited planet and star in the universe, seen 
and unseen, far and near. Let that be the profession 
and the declaration of faith in the church, as it is the 
evident intention of all Christ said, and none can fail 
of its meaning, or object to its spirit. 

There is another kind of spurious faith which 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 259 


grows out of a perversion of certain other principles 
of the spiritual life. It is that in which belief jc 
made to take the place of reality. As men think 
themselves, so they claim they are. Spiritual life is 
made imaginary. All things, without regard to ac- 
tual condition or qualification, are as they are felt 
to be. Magnificent and gorgeous dreams are looked 
upon as a safe and good index of religious life and 
growth. 

Though this is often a very enchanting, it is none 
the less a sophistical kind of faith. A man knows 
not whether he sleeps or wakes. But we doubt 
whether the belief changes the fact. We have little 
confidence in the man who is religious only when he 
feels like it. The history of God’s children makes it 
doubtful whether they are most religious when they 
feel the best or the worst. A good dinner or a glass 
of brandy may make a man feel well, but is that re- 
ligion?. If the west and north winds make men feel 
better than the east, is religion, therefore, in the way 
the wind blows? Christ’s religion is not. Good 
bread is better than poor; its effect is better ; but men 
do not live by bread alone. The divine spiritual life 
exists, triumphs, and is most religious when its pos- 
sessor is compelled to master his feelings. If pleasant, 
he makes them add speed to his flight; if oppressive, 
he grapples with and overcomes them. ‘Who shall 
ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand 
in his holy place?” He who dreams about it, or feels 
like it? ‘* He that hath clean hands, anda pure heart; 
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn 
deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the 


260 CREDO. 


Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salva- 
tion.” He is the one in whom the Holy Spirit finds his 
congenial home, and performs his appropriate work. 
‘‘T am the way,” says Christ. The way to walk, not 
to look at, he means. If the night is overcast, if we 
are anxious to accomplish a journey, and a friend 
should hail us in the darkness, saying, ‘‘I am the 
way,” or * I will show you the way,” we understand 
his meaning. We do not fold our hands and sleep. 
We rush into the night-darkness, follow the sound of 
his footfall, and try to be so near as to catch the pant- 
ings of his breath. We follow, as well as believe. 
Simple intellectual believing will never speed us on 
our journey, or bring us to a place of safety. So it is 
with Christ as the way of life. ‘* Have I been so 
long time with you, and hast thou not known me, 
Philip?” are the mournful words that might be ad- 
dressed to many a nominal professor. ‘* None of his,” 
and ‘“*I never knew you,” were spoken to those who 
were expecting that heaven was theirs. How mis- 
taken! Security degzzs in a renewed heart, and ends 
in a renewed life. Instead of being anything trivial, 
the gospel of Christ is the most startling appeal ever 
made to humanity. ‘Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, 
and shall not be able. When once the master of the 
house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye 
begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, say- 
ing, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer 
and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 
then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk 
in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 261 


But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence 
ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 
And behold, there are last, which shall be first; and 
there are first, which shall be last.” (Luke xiii. 24—- 
27; 30.) 

In what relation does an easily affected sentiment 
stand to these requirements of a divinely inspired life! 
Impulses, and agreeable impressions, which are often 
evanescent as summer clouds, are not the foundation 
on which Christians are to stand. True religion, the 
outgrowth of a supernatural life, is a living union with 
Christ. It is a believing, not with the head, but ‘with 
the heart; not a believing at random, but unto right- 
eousness. In case of the sinner, it is the casting be- 
hind him of everything human, a falling by faith into 
the arms of the divine, and an abiding there until the 
birth from above sends him forth again, not merely 
to talk sentimentally, and feel religiously, but to be 
religtous, and evoke by his conduct the praises of the 
universe. 

Are men made religious, and finally saved, by vir- 
tue of works? ‘Theoretically, they are; practically, 
they are not. Perfect obedience, in deed and spirit, 
constitutes a divine life. The more one studies the 
nature of Christianity, the meaning of the atonement, 
and the cross of Christ, the more of a vital and earnest 
thing will it seem, to be a true evangelical Christian. 
Note a few distinctions involved in the question be- 
fore us. 

There has been much confusion in the church and 
the world respecting the relation of faith and works. 
Between Paul and James seems to lie an inexplicable 


262 CREDO. 


paradox, but one in which we apprehend there is a 
crystallized truth, resplendent as sunlight. The for- 
mal Christian says, ‘I am saved by faith; I will 
do no work.” That is faith without works, by which 
one should be frightened, sooner than invite it to his 
hearthstone. Paul rejects such faith. The professed 
moralist says, ‘*I am ‘saved by my works; I will 
have nothing to do with faith.” That is works with- 
out faith, which is death. It is a corpse, which, after 
a while the owner will find to be destitute of the very 
life that gives it any value outside the dissecting-room 
or hall of exhibition. James rejects such works. 
What avails, then, justification by faith? A lawyer 
came to our Saviour, asking what he should do to 
inherit eternal life. He replied, ‘‘ What is written 
in the law; how readest thou? And he answering, 
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. 
And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right; 
this do, and thou shalt live.” The meaning is this: 
If a man will love the Lord his God with all his 
heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, 
and with all his mind, and his neighbor as himself, 
with the understanding that his neighbor is the man 
who needs his help, and that his nearest neighbor is 
the one who needs it most, — if the man always has 
and always will thus comply, he shall be saved. That 
is a clear case. But if he has not, what then? If 
he has not given up the sins he knows he ought to 
forsake, if he has not shunned the company he ought 
to abandon, if in his dealings he has wronged any 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 263 


one, or falsified in anything; if he has not forgiven 
all his enemies, and sought their good; if, in fine, he 
has not always possessed the spirit of Christ, which is 
the embodiment of humility, of reverence, of sobriety, 
of gentleness, of charity, of forgiveness, of fortitude, 
of resignation, of faith, of active love,—the spirit 
which is one and all of these, — what then? Has he 
ground of hope by the law of works? Not in the 
least. 

That lawyer blushed with shame when Christ made 
his reply; and it was well he did. But we hear it 
said, No man can reach such a standard. ‘True; but 
that is the only standard that God’s law and justice 
recognize: hence we say, practically, while men re- 
main in the kingdom of God’s law and justice, they 
await an inevitable death-blow. ‘Taking the world as 
it is, no man can be saved by his own works. Were 
not salvation dependent upon a spiritual life, he might. 
The better one is, the more painful is his conscious 
unworthiness. The more he does, the more will he 
long to rest on something besides his own deeds. It 
is absolutely impossible for any one of Adam’s de- 
scendants to pass, by his own efforts, from the natural 
to the supernatural life. 

While objecting to a religion based upon senti- 
mental prefessions, we purposely left the impression 
that deeds and endeavors were conditionally neces- 
sary. But there is another and deeper principle 
which underlies this, and to which we call attention 
for a moment. 

There are two things involved in salvation: first, a 
groundwork; and second, certain conditions. The 


264. CREDO. 


atonement of Christ forms the chief, nay, the sole 
groundwork of our salvation. It constitutes the only 
principle upon which God can justify any man, or 
vindicate his law to the universe. Without the atone- 
ment of Christ, no human being will or can be saved; 
rather, without the eternal principle which the atone- 
ment embodies. The infant and the idiot must be 
saved by the provisions of the atonement. The 
heathen, who have never heard of Christ as a Saviour ; 
nominal Christians, who have no faith in Christ as 
divine; the moralist, who sees no virtue except in 
good deeds, — whoever, from either of these classes, is 
saved (some may be), must be saved by the atonement 
of Christ; for there is no other name given under 
heaven for that purpose. The provisions are ample; 
they are omnipotent as the arm of God; they stretch 
back to the beginning of time, and fold in their em- 
brace the Antediluvian, as well as the last mortal who 
shall breathe on earth. 

As one of the great principles of God’s government, 
the atonement existed long before Jesus of Nazareth 
appeared. While looking, then, at the groundwork 
of salvation, the atonement stands before us in its ma- 
jestic proportions, underlying every other thought and 
object in the universe. It stands alone. But the con- 
ditions upon which the atonement avails are none 
the less important. Without complying with them 
we are lost, in spite of the atonement, or any number 
of atonements. We advocate not an unconditional, 
but a conditional salvation, through the atonement. 
But what are the conditions? In general, it may be 
said, repentance, faith, an active Christian life, and 


s 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 265 


conformity to the enjoined ordinances of the church. 
This, however, is an incomplete reply. No perfect 
and definite answer can be given. The conditions 
differ in every individual case throughout the world. 
They are graduated by the circumstances that sur- 
round us, by the providences of God which encom- 
pass, and by the constitutional peculiarities which 
characterize us. 

The conditions required of infants and of idiots, if 
there be for them no future probation (?), are not 
those imposed upon an adult. Those required of 
Savages and heathen, are not those placed upon men 
in civilized and Christianized lands. What the indi- 
vidual and particular conditions are, is made known, 
not to the world at large, but privately to every indi- 
vidual heart. God whispers them to all men: to this 
one, this specific thing; to that one, that specific thing. 
It is by obedience. or disobedience respecting these 
special commands that a man stands or falls, is saved 
or lost; so that if a man accepts, by practical faith, 
the atonement of Christ, the whole code of laws in the 
new kingdom is fulfilled. Man is not merely par- 
doned by accepting Christ, but is justified also. Of 
this there can be no question. A multitude of voices 
testify to it. We discover, in this broad principle 
of salvation, an explanation of the favorite theme of 
Paul— “salvation without the deeds of the law.” 
We are all lost, is his argument, unless there be such 
a salvation; for all have sinned and come short of 
the glory of God. 

‘“* But a tree,” it is said, “is known by its fruits, 
and not by its leaves and branches.” True; and yet 


. 


266 CREDO. 


all good trees are not fruit-bearers, in a worldly sense ; 
that is, what is not fruit in one of these kingdoms of 
which we have been speaking is fruit in the other. 

On one occasion our Saviour stood near the temple, 
and saw rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 
Some, undoubtedly, were good men, and devoted. 
One gave his millions for the poor of the city ; another 
swelled the treasury with thousands; others with hun- 
dreds. These offerings Christ did not despise; he 
honored them; they were well given. But ‘he saw 
also a certain poor widow casting in thither two 
mites.” O, how contemptible! Two mites! What 
little fruit! what despicable fruit! Call the wood- 
man; grind the axe; cut that tree down; put another 
in its place. Why cumbereth it the ground? But 
pause first. Christ knew what those two mites had 
cost the poor woman, and what toil had earned them. 
He knew that they were all her living; that her heart 
was right, though the offering of her hand was small. 
He overlooks nothing. In his judgment she had cast 
in, not more in Zroportion, but more in fact, than all 
the rest. That was salvation without the deeds of the 
law. Do Liberal Christians furnish a more liberal 
system of Christianity ? 

This principle may be urged still further. Though 
not a deed is wrought; though not a gift is bestowed, 
even of two-pence; though not a word is spoken for 
Christ; though the tongue is silent as the grave, be- 
cause it cannot move, yet such a one may be al-— 
ready farthest advanced in the kingdom of God. The 
poorest and the lowest may reap as ample harvests as 
the richest and highest. One man may be just as de- 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 267 


voted as another, rise just as high, come in possession 
of just as lordly a mansion as another, be he king or 
rag-picker. 

The old heavens and the old earth pass away in 
this new economy, and all things are changed; some- 
times in appearance, always in fact. We live in two 
realms. We may lead two lives; the one of which 
may, while the other may not, always conform to the 
will of the Father. 1 

It is upon this principle of justification without the 
deeds of the law, so frequently set before us through- 
out the Scriptures, that we base the glory of the gos- 
pel of Christ. And also upon this same principle we 
base a conviction that the number of those finally 
saved will be greater than many dare believe. Not 
that we lower the standard, or destroy the terms of 
salvation, but we believe the terms are complied with 
oftener than we generally imagine. The books of the 
visible church on earth do not contain all the names 
of God’s children. There are other church books 
than those we see and handle. Heaven is thronged 
with those who have not fulfilled the legal code. 
Indeed, there would be few there if the exact fulfil- 
ment were required. 

The Jews thought Jehovah was their own exclusive 
right and property.* But the principle under discus- 
sion shows that he belongs no less to that large other 
world of men and nations. The Scriptures, though 
especially portraying the history of the Jews, are not 
silent respecting other nations. Now and then they 


* See Robertson: 


268 CREDO. 


pass across the borders of Judea to find elsewhere 
some of the truest servants God has ever had on 
earth. We are told of Job, of Melchizedek, of Ra- 
hab. God has everywhere had his secret friends, at 
all times and in all nations; silent guests, ready ata 
critical moment to do his service. O, yes, there is a 
church on earth larger than our narrow hearts dare 
hope for. All those who are striving and groaning 
after God and his truth, after the universal Christ and 
his spirit, anywhere and everywhere, are its mem- 
bers. One has found what answers to the atonement 
without a preacher; another has walked by faith in 
heathen darkness; another has wrought for God val- 
iantly; and all who have borne the cross found at 
their doors, are the children and friends of God. 

Heaven is the place of the good. Many shall come 
from the east and the west. The Indian, whose faith 
in the Great Spirit made him a better man; the Hin- 
doo, who believed in God, and did not forget works 
of benevolence and justice; the devoted Catholic, who 
despised all that was not pure and good in his creed ; 
yes, and every man whose face has been set towards 
the light, and who has struggled towards it, — for 
God accepts human struggles, accounting them suc- 
cesses, — shall doubtless sit down with Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. ‘ This 
invisible church has passed through the centuries, 
absorbing silently into its bosom of all ages, of all 
nations, the good and the just.” 

‘*¢ When saw we thee an hungered and fed thee?” 
and ‘* Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren,” start a thousand pleasant 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 269 


questions in every generous and inquiring soul, and 
challenge the world to present a subiimer or more 
reasonable path to heaven. 

Further inquiries respecting faith and works being 
unnecessary, we are led to the positive statement 
that — 

Men are made religious, and are jinally saved, 
through the atonement of Christ. Leaving behind 
us formal professions and human efforts, we now 
stand face to face with the grandest and sublimest 
reality in the universe —the Atonement of Christ. 
It is that upon which faith and works depend. Its 
work is not natural, but supernatural. One cannot 
explain it, more than he can explain other super- 
natural phenomena. We cannot explain God, be- 
cause he is not a natural product. He is above the 
range of the natural. Why the atonement is made 
the groundwork of salvation no one knows. Men 
are charmed and perplexed in view of its efficacy. 
Likewise the angels. We can more easily show what 
it does than what it is. | 

Men have sinned. There is a difficulty in the way 
of forgiveness. Why, we may not know; the fact | 
all feel. Repentance will not repair the evil done. 
No man can repair the positive damage that a single 
sin has done God’s empire and love. The slightest 
dereliction has shocked the moral universe. Dark- 
ness covers the guilty race like a pall. Humanity is 
baffled. All its efforts touch not the evil. « Pay 
that thou owest,” thundered from the mountain, star- 
tles those hiding in the valley. It is at this crisis 
of terror that the atonement of Christ dissipates the 


240 CREDO. 


darkness anid implants immortal hopes. How? Why 
ask that question? Wedo not know. We know from 
experience that there is a connection between salva- 
tion and the atonement of Christ. Here we pause. 
Are we unreasonable? We drop the seed into the 
soil, cover it, and leave it. We do not see the con- 
nection between it and the beautiful flower that swells 
and blossoms above it; which kisses the atmosphere 
with its fragrance, and delights the eye which beholds 
it. But we have learned there is a connection: that 
is all; and that is enough. We sow and plant. Are 
we unreasonable? 

Thus Christians have learned that there is a vital 
connection between spiritual knowledge and a prac- 
tical belief in the atonement of Christ. They also 
have equal ground for denying the growth of the 
plant from the seed as for denying the connection be- 
tween the atonement of Christ and the everlasting 
peace which it inspires in the hearts of men. 

The atonement makes us one with God. All other 
difficulties vanish. The atonement shows men what 
they can become. They are gods fallen upon the 
earth. They are in distress and anguish. Through 
the atonement of Christ they rise; they extend their 
hands as upon his cross; they feel anguish like his; 
they feel the temporary loneliness of being forsaken 
of God; they assert, through Christ, their rights, their 
divinity, are born again, and are henceforth the re- 
deemed sons of God. 

Sin brought another world into this one. The 
atonement brings still another. It is above the nat= : 
ural. We dwell in it, and are subjects of it, only 


A SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 271 


through the agency of the supernatural life of the 
Redeemer. 

The relation of the atonement to the salvation of 
the race manifestly involves a process which is both 
divine and human. The human steps are natural, 
the divine are supernatural. God and man alternate 
in the work. Each does what the other cannot. Each 
is helpless without the other. It is God’s grace 
and human weakness cemented. It is a co-working 
which frees the soul from guilt, and lifts the world to 
heaven. 

The atonement is of the nature of a perpetual ben- 
ediction. The sufferings of Christ, upon which it is 
based, are not as those of guilty men, but are for 
guilty men. It is a smile of a Father, rather than a 
frown of the Almighty. The atonement is such a 
stroke of mercy that men are left, in consequence, to 
depend upon the love of God, as a child depends upon 
the affectionate embrace of his father. 

Its effect upon the individual is miraculous. The 
man believes. His belief is not an opinion. Opin- 
ions are not sufficient to produce spiritual transforma- 
tions. But the belief in the atonement, or in the 
mame, or in the zecesszty of the atonement, is such 
that the Holy Spirit employs it as an agency through 
which he enters the soul and performs a re-creation. 
Old things pass away: all things become new. 

Although it is as unreasonable to deny this transfor- 
mation of the hearts of millions of our fellow-beings 
as it would be to deny the most ‘manifest product of 
nature, yet it is as inexplicable as the nature and ex- 
istence of God. 


some 


272 CREDO. 


Multitudes there are who have not found the way. 
But if they are struggling for it, they are numbered 
by the court of heaven among those who are saved. 
They have faith in God and the right. The natural 
step is followed by the supernatural. It would be 
singular if among the varied human experiences 
some were not found who will struggle until death 
without the clear light of the other world bursting 
upon them. But it is enough to know that they are 


. struggling towards Christ. If they do not reach a 


full understanding of him in this world, they will in 
the next. If the bud of that eternal life is in the 
heart, when the hinderances of the world fall off, 
and its ignorance is overcome by the revelations of 
the next, then, through the transformations of faith, 
the obedience of a filial love,.and the renovation of 
the Holy Ghost, the undeveloped bud will burst forth 
into full and eternal bloom, fit to adorn the Paradise 
of God. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY 
FOR MAN. 


18 (273) 


‘If a man die, shall he live again?” Fob xiv. 14. 


‘Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart 
from me. . . . And these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment, but the righteous into life eternal.” Matthew xxv. 41, 46. 


‘*One question, more than others all, 
From thoughtful minds implores reply; 
It is, as breathed from star and pall, 
What fate awaits us when we die?” 


ALGER. 
sels Immortality deciphers man, 
And opens all the mysteries of his make. 
Without it, half his instincts are a riddle; 
Without it, all his virtues are a dream.” 
YOUNG. 


‘“‘ Immortality o’ersweeps 
All pains, all tears, all time, all fears; and peals, 
Like the eternal thunders of the deep, 
Into my ears this truth: Thou liv’st forever.” 
BYRON. 


(274) 


THE FUTURE EXISTENCE OF MAN. 


BURSERE is a world of interest in the question of 
the sorrowing patriarch of Uz. No heart beats 
which has not, at times, paused with fixed attention 
before it. It involves the most thrilling inquiries of 
every earnest soul. It comes home to us. All that 
we hold dear on earth is, or will be, involved in it. 
All that we hope for in the future is, or will be, at 
Stake upon its answer. As the distant and strange 
flight is taken by our friends, bereft and astonished 
nature has always, and will always, follow with the 
anxious thought struggling in the heart, or breaking 
from the lips, Have they gone — gone forever? or 
do they live beyond the horizon and above the clouds? 
We briefly consider some of the common objec- 
tions to the doctrine of man’s future existence. Our 
doubts respecting the doctrine arise manifestly from 
three sources: The magnitude of the subject, our 
Zonorance respecting the method and Possibility of 
@ consctous existence hereafter, and our Zonorance 
respecting the locality of the soul when separated 
Srom the body, 


(275) 


2476 CREDO. 


But do not objections, from their magnitude, weigh 
equally against a multitude of relations in our present | 
state? Will a candid man allow them to offset any 
direct argument in support of the doctrine under con- 
sideration? Or, should objections from the second 
source disturb our confidence, since the mode of op- 
eration and existence respecting everything is a mys- 
tery? Are the phenomena of talking and thinking, 
of memory and imagination, any less mysterious than 
the doctrine that this active, thinking, planning spirit 
of ours shall live forever? 

Again: Should the fact: that we cannot tell where 
the disembodied soul exists, lead us to deny its exist- 
ence? We have looked to one and another of the 
myriad points of light that spangle the midnight 
heavens, inquiring, Is this star, or that, my home? 
and have received no answer. We have wondered 
whether an untold space intervenes between us and 
the departed,’or only a thin partition of flesh and 
blood. We have inquired whether or not, if the dim- 
ness of our sight were removed, they of the other 
shore could be seen, as the servant of the prophet 
saw the armies of God on the mountain-side; and 
as yet we are in doubt. 

But what if, for some good reason, God has not 
seen fit to reveal to us the precise place of our fu- 
ture existence, has he not disclosed to us enough? 
Heaven, the place of loyal hearts; hell, the place of 
disloyal hearts; the one the home of blessed, the 
other the home of doomed spirits, — are not those 
sufficiently definite revelations? Latitude and longi- 
tude add nothing. Who can tell where or how the 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. = 247 


essential soul of man exists even while in the body? 
It has been located, by different philosophers, all the 
way from the crown of the head to the soles of the 
feet. Shall we, therefore, disbelieve its existence? 
Must we in everything come down to that philoso- 
phy which will not reason except from matter up to 
spirit? Must we return to pagan mythology, and 
insist upon making the earth support the heavens? 
Are not the heavens and the truths of revealed reli- 
gion self-supporting and_ self-illuminating? Why, 
then, attempt to make spirit depend upon matter — 


the eternal upon the temporal, the absolute upon the | 


empirical? Is a thing unreal because invisible? Are 
the stars destroyed when the sky is overcast? Must 
everything become the object of sight and touch 
before we can be certain of its existence? Can we 
take no substitute for the ‘‘ pound of flesh”? What 
is the power that moves the world, and makes * the 
crystal spheres ring out their silver chimes,” —can 
we see it? 

What is, where is, the substance of man’s being, — 
can we tell? Or, how do we continue to live when 
we are asleep, —do we know? Let us say, then, that 
there is no law of gravitation: we die when we sleep, 
and the world is annihilated on a dark night, — why 
not? What a contracted view of immortality is this 
which depends upon keeping the soul within hailing 
distance of earth! Better continue plodding as we 
do, than inherit such immortality. 

Truth and certainty, in their highest sense, belong 
not to this, but to the invisible world, —that world 
where God is, ‘‘ where human thought ranges freest, 


278 CREDO. 


where human feelings swell into a vastness like the 
deep and living ocean,” * through which men’s affec- 
tions soar away into eternity: that world of faith fur- 
nishes the most substantial basis upon which to build 
our hopes. Its data are more certain, its testimonies 
are more sure, its prospects more enchanting, its 
songs sweeter, its joys more abiding; and we are 
miserable if we have never heard or felt them. 

We pass to the arguments which support the doc- 
trine. They are from four distinct sources: the 
moral government of God, the spiritual nature of 
man, certain well-known phenomena, and Christian 
faith in an inspired revelation. 

The Moral Government of God ag the Luture 
Lixistence of Man.— We live in a world where vir- 
tue and success are not always united. Sometimes 
innocent men are condemned; frequently guilty men 
escape. The most unprincipled sometimes prosper, 
and in all their business relations march from youth 
until death through fields of success, and of their own 
choice. On the other hand, moral and religious men 
are often distressed and bafHled. Evils visit and re- 
visit them — to-day in one form, to-morrow in anoth- 
er. Sometimes these two classes —the religious and 
irreligious — meet. Their interests clash, with every 
advantage on the one side, and every disadvantage on 
the other. The poor are ground into the dust, and 
gains are speculated out of their very destitution. 
With these aggravated and merciless transactions 
men often become thoroughly impatient, and feel that 


* Shedd. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 279 


God does not do his duty, or he would hurl down 
these oppressors from their high places, and raise up 
those who are bowed in the dust. All persons feel 
that they could improve upon God’s plan of opera- 
tions, and correct, to advantage, his moral govern- 
ment. Could they not, so far as the present life is 
concerned? 

This condition of things has been noticed through 
all history. Democritus put out his eyes, because he 
could not endure to see wicked men prosper and 
good men suffer. Mr. Hume says, ‘Such is the con- 
fusfon and disorder of human affairs, that no perfect 
economy, or perfect distribution of happiness or mis- 
ery, is ever, in this life, to be expected.” The ancient 
Theists were persuaded that nothing less than the 
existence of all mankind hereafter, with a more exact 
distribution of rewards and punishments, could excuse — 
present irregularities. 

Ancient philosophers, to reconcile the inconsisten- 
cies in God’s moral government, resorted to a mul- 
titude of expedients and theories. The familiar max- 
ims, ‘** The gods move slow, but sure;” ‘ The mill 
of the gods grinds late, but fine,”—are merely excuses 
for divine delinquencies, and involve the expectation 
that the unrectified wrongs of this world will be 
righted in the next. Shall we be less thoughtful for 
the divine integrity than were the pagans? Or is 
Jehovah more insensible to the iniquities and irregu- 
larities of society than Jupiter? If so, hail, Jupiter! 

Nay; but these wrongs will be righted — not here, 
but hereafter. If there is no hereafter, there is no just 
God in the universe. Ten thousand loyal hearts are 


280 As CREDO. 


beating and waiting for the sight; they will not see 
it until the curtain concealing another life is lifted: 
then they will see it. But this involves the future 
existence of the race. 

Lhe Skill of the Creator, and the Future Extst- 
ence of Man.— A glance at the universe reveals the 
most marvellous and perfect adaptation of means to 
ends. Then is seen a fitness in all things. So wonderful 
is this adaptive power, that from it is inferred the exist- 
ence and wisdom of a Creator. It is a remarkable 
fact, that all scientific professors — the chemist, the 
astronomer, the natural philosopher, the anatomist, 
and the natural historian— vie with one another in 
their praises of the skill of God. Each claims that 
his particular department of science proves it more 
conclusively than any other. Scarcely an object in 
creation but is sure to bear its testimony to the same 
truth. The decaying seed, bursting into life; the 
blade of grass, nodding to the breeze; the little dew- 
drops, held sparkling in the tiny cups of a woodland 
violet; the leaf of the forest, opening its palm to give 
and receive life; the ocean, with its heaving tides, its 
coral palaces, its submerged mountains; the giant 
cloud, tinged with fire; and the sun, wheeling his 
huge proportions from morning until evening through 
the vaulted sky, — disclose relations so beautiful and 
harmonious, that they have driven atheism and dual- 
ism, and all kindred theories, save speculative panthe- 
ism, from the world. 

There is one solitary exception to this general prin- 
ciple— man. His harmony with this world is never 
complete. He is ever vibrating between. trembling 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 281 


apprehensions and glowing aspirations. His heart 
throbs constantly with those unsatisfied desires with 
which God has crowded him, but which are so far, so 
infinitely far, from complete realization in any con- 
dition of life. Amid conscious infirmity, under sen- 
tence of death, there is ever a feeling after, if haply 
he may find his home. The race is homesick. It 
longs for a knowledge more Satisfying, a voice of wel- 
come more cordial, an approval more tranquillizing, 
and a resting-place more permanent, than earth can 
give. 

No wonder that man is the most dissatisfied and 
fault-finding creature God has made. Viewed as to 
this life only, he has every reason to be. Created 
with a nature that no grasp of wealth, no attainments 
of knowledge, no sway of power can satisfy, then 
caged and fettered! Created the lord of earth, to 
whom the entire animal creation pays its homage, 
then left to be more miserable and unsatisfied than the 
creatures he rules! r 

The only beings on earth whom God has so created 
as to be satisfied with this life are brutes and fools. 
The lion, roaring and roving through the desert, mad 
and impatient for its prey, when his hunger and that 
of his young are satisfied, returns to his den with no 
higher thought or desire. The little sparrow longs 
not for the plumage of the bird of paradise to com- 
plete its happiness, but, when its few wants are satis- 
fied, warbles forth its praises to God as if earth itself 
were Paradise. But man becomes more restless the 
more his wants are supplied. Grant his desires, and 
you multiply them. Deck him with kingly robes,. 


282 CREDO. 


and you are not so near satisfying him as if he were 
in tattered rags. Clothe him with righteousness as 
with a garment, and you have only increased his long- 
ing for a purer life —a resurrection in the likeness of 
his Redeemer. 

The life of man has no meaning, there is no sense 
or reason in his creation, or in the creation of the 
world about him, if this throbbing nature of his ceases 
to live at death. Without the knowledge of a future 
existence in some men, and the dream of it in all, 
every man would ‘curse God, and die.” Job’s wife 
would have been justified in giving her advice, and 
Job in following it. But on the supposition that man 
is at present placed in an unnatural and temporal 
sphere, and -that he will attain the end and object of 
his creation sometime and somewhere: on the suppo- 
sition that every man, good and bad, will find his own 
place—he that loves God and his service a place 
suited to him; he that hates God and his service one 
adapted to him; naked or clothed upon, as the case 
may be: on the supposition that all may find what 
they hope for or expect —that which philosophy 
gropes after, that which apostles and prophets were 
inspired to proclaim, that which is given to faith, — 
then the riddles are explained. Man is no longer the 
‘wretch ” and the ‘ fool” of creation, which the max- 
ims of all nations have otherwise justly declared him 
to be. He is the subject of discipline, the object of 
God’s tender solicitude; but the being whose true 
sphere is in eternity, above all principalities and pow- 
ers. Is not the blunder of man’s creation unpardon- 
able, unless there be for him a future existence? 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 283 


We pass to the third argument. 

Certain well-known Facts and Phenomena indicate 
Man’s Future Existence. —Sometimes it happens 
that an old man visits the scenes of his childhood. 
As he nears the place he once called home, and some 
familiar object meets his vision, his sluggish energies 
arouse a little, his form is more erect, his step is 
quicker, and his eye is brighter. In proportion to the 
increase of home scenes, increases also his strength 
and activity. When the familiar objects thicken along 
the pathway, and the memories of the past throng 
about him, his age is forgotten, his youth is renewed, 
and his eye flashes with all the fire of stalwart man- 
hood. So it is sometimes with dying men. © They 
appear to catch sight of familiar objects on their jour- 
ney. As God’s promises are realized, as the thrones 
above and the prepared mansions pass in review, their 
eyes light up as if they were windows through which 
they were looking into heaven; the tongue has been 
loosened, the voice strengthened, and songs of triumph 
have burst from lips that falter not, though they had 
trembled in an attempt to whisper an hour before. 
They are nearing home. Were the body not exhaust- 
ed, every child of heaven would leave this world bear- 
ing upon his face the refulgence of the city of God. 

Again: The activity which the spiritual nature of 
man displays in certain instances when it loses the 
partial or entire control of the body, is suggestive. 
The acuteness with which man hears, the clearness 
of his sight, the keenness of his perceptions, and the 
powers of his memory and conscience, all go to show 
that his conscious, spiritual activity does not depend 


254 CREDO. 


upon a natural and healthy condition or union of it 
with the body, but that it may be greatly, even pre- 
ternaturally, increased by an entire suspension of the 
harmonious union of spirit and body. There are in- 
stances on record where persons, to all outward ap- 
pearances, have been dead. They have remained thus 
for hours and days. Nota pulse could be felt, not a 
breath was drawn; the lips were bloodless, and eyes 
sunken. Afterwards they have recovered their ani- 
mation, and in many cases have borne testimony that, 
during all the time of this suspended animation, 
though they had lost entire muscular control over the 
body, as much so as if there had been a complete 
separation, yet a most perfect and vigorous conscious- 
ness of every passing event was retained. Every 
preparation for burial was noted ; every word spoken 
was heard and remembered. Who can tell but every 
man attends his own funeral! 

These cases of suspended animation do not demon- 
strate, but they certainly point in the direction of the 
spirit’s entire independence of the body, so far as con- 
sciousness is concerned. 

The same general phenomena occur in health. A 
person may be occupied in his room, and take no note 
of the ticking of a clock on the shelf. Upon leaving 
the room, he affirms he has not heard a single click. 
But if the ticking had ceased during his presence, his 
attention would have been instantly arrested. We 
may sleep soundly while carriages are thundering 
past our windows; yet an unusual noise in our 
apartment, though slight as a whisper, will bring us 
to our feet. Have we not often slept soundly until. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 285 


the minute we had previously resolved to wake? The 
principle involved is the same in each of these cases. 
There is a nature in man which does not— we may 
say which cannot—sleep. It is continually on the 
lookout. The moment anything unusual takes place 
it sounds the alarm. It shouts to one sense, pushes 
against another, and tugs at a third, until they are 
aroused, until the danger is past, until discouraged in 
its efforts, or until there is a fatal result. Is there not 
here an activity of the soul which is above any and 
all the senses? Does it any more depend upon them 
for its conscious activity, than does the eagle depend 
for its life upon the cage that confines it? 

The same principle may be still further extended 
and illustrated. In the Life of Dr. Francis Wayland, 
recently published, we find the following incident: 
When, on a certain occasion, he was expected home 
from New York, after attending medical lectures there 
during the winter of 1814-15, Mrs. Wayland, his 
mother, who was sitting with her husband, suddenly 
walked the room in great agitation, saying, ‘ Pray for 
my son; Francis is in danger.” So urgent was her 
request, that her husband joined her in prayer for his 
deliverance from peril. At the expected time he re- 
turned. His mother at once asked, ‘*‘ What has taken 
place?” It appeared, at the time of her agitation, 
while coming up the North River on a sloop, that 
Francis had fallen overboard, and the sloop passed 
over him. He was an athletic swimmer, and readily 
kept himself afloat until he could be rescued. 

A certain woman, the wife of a sea captain, started 
from her sleep at midnight, and exclaimed, **O God! 


286 CREDO. 


my husband is lost!” Subsequent facts showed that 
the ship on which her husband sailed went down in 
that storm and at that hour. 

More than one mother, during the late war in this 
country, has described the precise spot where her 
son fell, the time of his death, and the character of 
his wounds, and this days before the news of his 
death had reached home from the distant southern 
field. | | 

A friend of the author once narrated to him a 
vision of the death of an absent sister. He perceived 
the minutest transactions — the last look, the pressure 
of hands, the surrounding friends, the very moment 
death occurred, as denoted by the clock on the shelf, 
—and this while hundreds of miles away. Subse- 
quently, the facts as they occurred and as seen by the 
brother, were found to be in perfect agreement. 

We need not pause to multiply illustrations of this 
kind. Every household has its witness. The task 
before us is to ascertain, if possible, the basis of all 
these phenomena. What is it, and what its charac- 
ter? Spiritualism! But what is spiritualism? What 
can it do in such cases? ‘This is a display of the ac- 
tivity of the spirits of the living, not of the dead. 
Wayland’s mother was not dead, neither was her son 
Francis. Here is a phenomenon which the spiritual- 
ist seeks to ignore; a phenomenon also which passes 
entirely beyond the range of ordinary sensation. This 
is a conscious activity of man, which depends in no 
way, directly or indirectly, upon his hand, his ear, or 
his eye. Lock up or destroy every recognized sense, 
— still this mysterious power of apprehension is not 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN, 287 


touched or affected. It ranges over the world with 
the freedom of a king. Does it not look as though, 
that when the physical tabernacle falls, from it will 
merge this something, which is so entirely independent 
of a bodily organism for its knowledge, which over- 
leaps all bounds, and which asks for no visible con- 
tact with that which it perceives? We go still farther. 
May not Wayland’s mother have felt that there was 
danger, by being herself consciously near it? May 
not the mother who saw her son on the field of battle, 
and the brother who witnessed the death of his sister, 
have had a conscious activity hundreds of miles dis- 
tant from their own physical or recognized presence? 

The knowledge obtained in these cases was most 
certainly not from the spirit of the dead son coming 
to the mother, not from the spirit of the dead sister 
coming to her brother; but can we as confidently say 
that it was not obtained by the mother’s own spirit, 
while visiting the boy in danger, or in death? 

Does not the language of Paul go very far in proy- 
ing the possibility of such an absent, conscious activi- 
ty? “TI knew,” he says, “a man in Christ, above 
fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot 
tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell: God 
knoweth; such a one caught up to the third heaven.” 
(2 Cor. xii. 2.) Would Paul have employed such 
language had he not believed in the possibility of the 
thing supposed? 

If it be admitted that the soul is capable of a con- 
Scious activity in one place, while the body is in anoth- 
er, — and ten thousand incidents of life demand such 
admission, — will it not Sweep away every objection 


288 - CREDO. 


of the materialist to the doctrine of a future existence 
for the race? 

Grant this principle of conscious activity apart from 
the body, as indicated in the phenomena of sleep, of 
suspended animation, and of premonitions, and we 
can easily admit the future existence of man in thus 
proving his independence of the body. The body 
might be annihilated before the return of that absent 
activity, and the full play of it would be unaffected. 
The natural body might be left in the grave forever, 
without preventing the conscious activity of man from 
rising to heaven, or from sinking, with all its powers 
unimpaired, into the dark abyss prepared for the lost. 
We advance a step farther. 

These phenomena we are considering militate 
against the doctrine of the unconscious sleep of the 
dead in the intermediate state. They indicate that 
while death shuts one class of senses it opens another. 
From the spiritual activity sometimes manifested, it 
would appear that life is death, and death life. We 
live in two worlds; one is visible to us, both to the 
dead. The dead possess all the consciousness of the 
living, and much more. The dead are just out of our 
sight, — round the corner of the temple of nature. 
We dwell in the suburbs of the eternal city, they are 
in the kingly metropolis. We are in the basement, 
they are in the royal chambers of state. We are under 
clouds, they are in a light so radiant that if it should 
fall upon us at midday “the earth would seem to ~ 


suffer an eclipse, and hang like a corpse in the midst 
of shadows.” * é 


* Sears. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 289 


Christian Fatth, based upon an Inspired Revela- 
tion, and the Future Existence of Man. — The argu- 
ment from this source, though the most difficult to 
state, is nevertheless the only one which js felt to 
be entirely convincing. The prominence which the 
Scriptures give to this fact is truly surprising. So 
bold is the language, so impressive the imagery em- 
ployed, that many sincere Christians, without distin- 
guishing between a mere existence in the future and 
the healthy vitality of that existence, — between a 
cold, intellectual view of it, and the moving, abiding 
confidence which the doctrine inspires in a Christian 
heart, — have concluded that the Bible teaches that 
future existence, in any sense, is impossible without 
Christ, and that the wicked must, therefore, be anni- 
hilated at death. This, however, is a great mistake. 
A future existerice no more depends upon faith than 
does the present existence. The simple existence of 
man in the future is not at all affected by his relations 
to Christ. Death cannot have the least effect upon 
the spiritual nature of man. Death can touch only 
materials organized. The command that could de- 
Stroy even one spirit, or the law that could allow 
of such destruction, might also result in the destruc- 
tion of all spiritual existence, good and bad, includ- 
ing the Creator. The annihilationist does not realize 
whither his doctrine leads him. 


** The soul, secure in her existence, smiles 
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.” 


So far as the subject involves the question of reason 
or philosophy, but one- conclusion can be reached: 


19 


290 CREDO. 


that if future existence can be predicated of one hu- 
man spirit, it must be of all, good and bad alike. But 
let us turn to the Scriptures. Fix the attention, for 
a moment, upon the single passage from our Saviour 
at the head of this discussion: ‘‘ These shall go away 
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
life eternal.’ The period here referred to is not at 
death, but long after death —at the final judgment 
of the world. The words here translated ‘ everlast- 
ing” and “eternal” are in the original the same word, 
which, together with a similar one from the same 
root, constitute the common scriptural terms in use 
to express indefinite and also endless duration. The 
word before us is employed in the New Testament 
on sixty-six different occasions; in fifty-one of which 
it is used to express the duration of the happiness 
of the righteous; twice to express the duration of 
God’s existence; in six other connections, where, all 
admit, it means eternity. There remain seven pas- 
sages where the word is applied to the duration of 
the punishment of the wicked. Can any candid ex- 
planation of the use of this word, or any fair interpre- 
tation of the passage under consideration, in which 
the word is employed in the same connection to ex- 
press both the duration of the happiness of the holy, 
and the duration of the woe of the lost, evade the 
conclusion that if we base our belief respecting the 
eternal existence of God, and the eternal felicity of 
holy men, upon the teachings of our Saviour, we must 
also, on the same ground, accept a belief as to the 
future, if not the endless, punishment of the finally 
impenitent sinner? We say future or endless, be- 


os 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 291 


cause the future existence of all men is the only 
question this discourse proposes to settle. But it is 
asked, How do you explain those passages which are 
claimed to teach that there is no future existence apart 
from Christ? Are there not passages which as un- 
questionably represent that there is no true life in 
this world without Christ? What is the stream with- 
out the fountain, — what the branches without the 
vine? ‘* Without me, ye can do nothing.” But does 
this language imply that all men are literally dead, 
like the severed branch, apart from Christ? Does it 
not rather mean that all true vitality is impossible 
without a union with Christ? In a sense, we admit, 
there is no immortality possible apart from a divine 
Saviour —in the same sense as there is no true life 
on earth possible without him. There is no future 
existence and no immortality without him which has 
real value. Without him a belief in the future state 
is little better than guess-work, and heaven is only a 
conjecture. A view of the future existence, without 
Christ, can evoke no smile from the human face. It - 
may unfold the outside of human nature, but the hid- 
den depths of our being will lie dormant until’ the 
forces of a spiritual and supernatural life through a 
Redeemer evolve them. ‘Never can the ocean tides 
of the human soul heave and swell until they are 
moved by what the Scriptures call ‘ the power of an 
endless life.” This power descends only from the 
splendid city of God, and upon him only who is an 
heir of heaven through Christ. The second death, 
whenever it occurs, is the eternal separation of the 
soul from all that man holds dear. It is a condition 


292 CREDO. 


from which restoration is absolutely impossible. This 
we believe to be the sense of the passages in question. 
They lose none of their pungent force by this inter- 
pretation; and the harmony of the Scriptures can 
be fairly maintained by no other explanation. In 
what perfect keeping, also, is this view with the ex- 
perience of mankind! Ask him who has never been 
influenced by Christain faith, or by the spirit of Christ, 
though he has lived a hundred years. Has there 
been any real vitality to your life? He will tell you, 
no. Few men have known the world better, or shared 
more largely in its smiles, than Lord Chesterfield. 
One less fortunate would have pronounced his life full 
of reality and vitality. Hear his own confession: 

“I have run the silly rounds of business and pleas- 
‘ure, and have done with them all. When I reflect 
on what I have seen, what I have heard, and what 
I have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all 
that frivolous ,hurry, and bustle, and pleasure of the 
world has any reality; but I look upon it all as one 
of those romantic dreams which opium occasions, 
and do by no means desire to repeat the dose for the 
sake of the dream. Shall I tell you that I bear this 
melancholy situation with the sustaining constancy 
and resignation of which others speak? No; I bear 
it because I must bear it, whether I will or no. I 
think of nothing but killing time, now it has become 
my enemy; and my resolution is to sleep in the car- 
riage during the rest of the journey.” 

His experience is not an exceptional one. Is this 
doubted? Then let any man who is destitute of a 
Christian faith ask himself, ‘* Shall I walk those golden 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN, 293 


streets? Shall I cool the feverish excitement of this 
life upon the shores of that river? Shall I see the city 
and the throne of God, and God himself, face to face? 
—and he will learn how vague are his hopes, and how 
tantalizing are his fondest dreams. His only answer, 
if honest, will be, “I do not know.” Or, let a mother 
who is destitute of Christian faith, but who is familiar 
with all else that can be advanced in Support of this 
doctrine, and who desires it to be true above all things 
else, ask, ‘* Will the bud that blossomed on my bosom, 
and fell into the earth, unfold itself, and send its sweets 
ness out into another world? Will my Own spirit 
make its journey good across the sea? Shall I behold 
the blossom, and press it whence it fell?” She will 
answer, if honest with herself, ‘I do not know.” 
William R. Alger is a good representative of this 
class. After canvassing the subject of the future life 
in all its bearings, he honestly concluded his work of 
more than six hundred pages with this cheerless lan- 
guage: ‘‘ When we die, may the Spirit of truth, the 
Comforter of Christ, be our confessor; the last inhaled 
breath, our cup of absolution ; the tears of some dear 
friend, our extreme unction; no complaint for past 
trials; but a grateful acknowledgment for all bless- 
ings,our parting word. And then, resigning our- 
selves to the universal Father, — assured that whatever 
ought to be, and is best to be, will be, — either abso- 
lute oblivion shall be welcome, or we will go forward 
to new destinies; whether with preserved identity or 
with transformed consciousness and powers being 
indifferent to us, since the will] of God is done.” Here 
is submission, but not one word of thrilling assurance. 


294 CREDO. 


There are bright stars which glitter and sparkle 
throughout his work, but, like those of pagan philoso- 
phers, they impart to the soul no warmth. He talks 
calmly about death, but removes not its sting. He 
plants the grave with the choicest flowers at human 
command, but it is not swallowed up in victory. 
What, then, avails talk or flowers? With what mani- 
fest propriety do the Scriptures represent that those 
who are destitute of Christ reach, at length, a spe- 
cies of practical annihilation! Ad nzhil — traversing 
the universe to reach nothing! Certainly we shall be 
pardoned for judging a man by his own conclusions. 

Nay, it is a heart possessing and rejoicing in an 
active evangelical Christian faith which alone can en- 
able its possessor to rise above this sunless sky of 
rationalism, and break to the world its confident 
assurance in the voice of revelation — “‘ For we know 
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dzs- 
solved, we have a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens.” But Mr. Alger, 
and those with him, will say, ‘‘ You do not know 
this.” We do know it. May we not judge? Witha 
Christian faith, which is the gift of God to penitent 
hearts seeking it, that future life is as certain and real 
as if our feet were already upon its pavements. Do 
you doubt this? Find Christ, abide with him, and 
anon you will doubt no more. 


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Sh eae 7 
eS Selo ae 


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Teh ae 
in’ ie : 


oi on ae 


“I by no means accept the common idea of the resurrec- 
tion. It is not rising again; it is rising up—a higher state.” 
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 


“ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it 
bringeth forth much fruit.” Yon xii. 24. 


‘“‘ But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and 
with what body do they come? 

“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, ex- 
cept it die: 

‘“‘And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body 
that shall be, but bare grain; it may chance of wheat, or of 
some other grain: 

‘But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to 
every seed his own body.” 1 Corinthians xv. 35-38. 


‘Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which 
all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, 

“And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto 
the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto 
the resurrection of damnation.” okn vy. 28, 29. 


“‘And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, 
some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of 
this matter.” Acts xvii. 23. 


“¢ For each one body that i’ th’ earth is sown, 
There's an uprising but of one for one; 
But for each grain that in the ground is thrown, 
Threescore or fourscore spring up thence for one; 
So that the wonder is not half so great 
Of ours, as is the rising of the wheat.” HERRICK. 


“ An angel's arm can’t snatch me from the grave; 
Legions of angels can’t confine me there.” Youna. 


(296) 


Li; 


THE RESURRECTION OF MAN. 


Rie subject of the resurrection of the dead meets 

mankind everywhere. It is a doctrine in- 
wrought with the laws of our being. Dismiss it if 
we will, it is sure to revisit us. It comes, bidden or 
unbidden, as naturally as our memories of the past. 
The thought of death standing at our own door and 
knocking — the death and resurrection of Christ, to- 
gether with a score of religious themes — reproduce 
it. Whenever we lay our friends in the tomb, or 
kneel at their graves to weep and pray, we involun- 
tarily ask, though perhaps silently, “ How wld they 
come forth?” 

Though the question of the resurrection of the body 
is one of perplexity; though we may have had fre- 
quent occasion to review and change our previous 
conclusions; though we have often vacillated between 
belief and disbelief, between indifference and dis- 
quietude; though we have sometimes felt, with the 
‘Country Parson,” that the doctrine is one that it is 


not wise to scrutinize too minutely, and that the day 
(297) 


298 CREDO. 


of wonders can alone disclose the whole truth, — still 
we have, with the most natural and the best of rea- 
sons, continued to dwell upon the subject, and enter 
upon new fields of investigation, that we might search 
into the grounds of a rational faith, and the more so 
as we have seen the day approaching. 

Lhe Scriptural Theory of the Resurrection of the 
Lody.—In the time of the apostle Paul there arose 
violent discussions in the church at Corinth upon this 
general subject, involving both the resurrection of 
Christ and the future personal resurrection of all 
men. The Corinthian congregation was composed 
of persons who had gathered from every existing 
school of philosophy. Their previous intellectual 
opinions seem, for a long time, to have been cherished 
with jealous devotion. Christianity corrects the heart 
first, the head afterwards. 

The two most prominent and opposing theories en- 
tertained by’ this celebrated church were Gnosticism 
and Stoicism. The first taught that sin could be 
predicated of the body only, never of the soul: con- 
sequently, when the soul is freed from the body, sin 
will no longer exist, and man will no longer be held 
accountable for it. Stoicism, on the other hand, con- 
tended that sin must be conquered by the force of 
one’s will, both in the soul and in the body. This 
conquest, it was claimed, constitutes a resurrection to 
a new life, and the only resurrection possible. Very 
naturally did those opposing classes of mind, when 
brought into the same church, clash in their interpre- 
tations and expositions of the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion. The controversy was prolonged; and we infer 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 299 


from the spirit of the Epistle that it was, on the part 
of some, unchristian-like. 

At length, to settle these discussions, and restore 
harmony to the church, some leading member or 
members wrote or sent to the apostle Paul, to know, 
among other things, what was true on the subject, 
and what was not; how far it was safe to believe, and 
how far to disbelieve, the theories then in dispute. 
Here, then, we have, for a definite purpose, a direct 
and specific question, requiring a direct and specific 
answer; so that, of all else in the Bible upon the 
doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, this letter of 
Paul to the Corinthian church affords the surest foun- 
dation for our belief. Our theory of the question 
must here be established. All other passages must 
be interpreted by it, and be made to harmonize with 
it; for this one was given for the special purpose of 
disclosing to us the doctrine, and is the only passage 
of any length in the Bible which has been given ex- 
pressly and avowedly for that purpose. Ascertain 
its exact meaning, granting its inspiration, and .there 
need be no further difficulty. We may know to-day, 
and know to-day precisely as well as when the world 
shall end, what will ¢ez be our condition. 

In the examination of this and confirmatory pas- 
sages, we shall be governed by the following principles 
of scriptural interpretation; that it is not our duty 
to seek to find difficulties, but to remove them; that 
we should not seek to make contradictions, but should 
try to discover the truth; that we should not believe 
the most zmprobadble, but the most probable of two 
possible interpretations ; and that the most simple and 


300 CREDO. 


natural interpretation, other things equal, should guide 
us to our conclusions. What, then, is the least ob- 
jectionable, the most probable, and the most natural 
interpretation of the passages before us, concerning 
the resurrection of the dead. 

The Embodiment of the Soul in the Future.—The 
‘‘ resurrection unto life,” and the * resurrection unto 
damnation,” would seem to be meaningless in the lips 
of Christ, were not the human soul at some future 
time to come in possession of a body, in which it shall 
live and through which it will act. We cannot fail 
to notice, also, that there is scarcely a verse in this 
entire chapter to the Corinthians which does not di- 
rectly or indirectly disclose the same fact. It is made 
particularly clear in the following expressions: ‘“ But 
God giveth it a body.” ‘There are bodies celestial 
and bodies terrestrial.” ‘It is sown a natural body, 
and raised a spiritual body.” ‘+ There is a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body.” No one, we 
think, can honestly deny that these expressions teach 
the existence of a future body, in which the immortal 
spirit shall live and reign. . 

Lhe Future Body to differ from the Present.— 
An examination of the passage before us will lead, 
also, to the conclusion, that the apostle designed ex- 
plicitly to state that the future body will be free from 
all gross materials, such as enter into its present struc- 
ture, and that, in this respect, it will be unlike the 
present body. What other interpretation can possibly 
be put upon the following expressions: ‘It is sown 
in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.” ‘It is 
sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.” ‘It is sown 


? 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 301 


in weakness, it is raised in power.” The only obvious 
impression is, that the body is now mortal ; it will then 
be immortal; now natural, then spiritual; now one 
thing, then another. ‘All flesh,” continues the apos- 
tle, ‘‘is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of 
flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, 
and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, 
and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial 
is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of 
the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star 
differeth from another star in glory. 

‘* So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown 
in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. . . . Now 
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot in- 
herit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption 
inherit incorruption.” We are not able to see on 
what principles of interpretation these passages can 
be made to harmonize with a theory of the resurrec- 
tion which: calls for the restoration of the old body, 
particle for particle, as it was constituted when it 
returned to the dust. 

Must it not be conceded, if we rely upon the lan- 
guage employed, that the materials of the new body 
will be unlike those of the present, and that the new 
body will differ from the old one as the glory and 
brightness of the sun differ from the glory and bright- 
ness of a star; as much as things celestial differ from 
things terrestrial ; as much as the spiritual differs from 
the natural? 

Must we not conclude that the resurrection body is 
to be etherealized and spiritualized; that it is to be 


~ 


302 CREDO. 


of such a character that a volition, perhaps, will be 
able to send it to the stars, as it now sends thither our 
thoughts; that this image of the earthy is to give 
place to the image of the heavenly; that the dew 
of perpetual youth, the vigor of eternal manhood, the 
glow of perfect health, is ever to rest upon that new 
body, to increase its strength, to enhance its beauty, 
and to enable it to defy death and live forever? Is 
not something else besides exactly our old organism 
to encircle us? Is not the diseased blood, which is 
now freighted with fever and death, which courses 
languidly through the veins, which cannot, according 
to the apostle, inherit the kingdom of heaven, to give 
place to that which will paint an eternal rose upon 
the cheek, and impart to the faded eye the splendors 
of another world? Move on, O son of man, and con- 
quer! The dead are the only people who do not 
sicken and grow old. ‘Sown in weakness, raised 
in power!” Carry out the apostle’s illustration. 
‘* Thou sowest,” he Says, ‘‘not that body that shall 
be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some 
other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath 
pleased him, and to every seéd his own body.” Call 
to mind the field on the hill-side. The seed that was 
sown disappeared. In its place, and springing from 
it, was waving, for a time, the tender blade, painting 
the field with life and beauty. Later stood the ripened 
_ grain, and then the sheaf, ready for the garner. Is all 
this the material which was sown? It has come from 
the material that was sown. True; and we call it, in 
freedom of speech, the grain that was sown. But is 
it, in fact, the ¢dentical erain that was sown? Has 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 303 


not the old material, in part at least, disappeared? 
Is not this which we see something new and more 
beautiful ? 

But let us look more closely. The springing grain 
is our authorized commentary. We must patiently 
consult it while interpreting this illustration given 
both by Christ and by Paul. The seed contains in 
itself two opposing forces — one conservative, the 
other formative. The tendency of the one is to zn- 
fold, that of the other to uzfold. While the seed is 
safely stored in the garner, the conservative force pre- 
dominates, and the shell is master. But under other 
influences the formative force predominates; the shell 
is broken, the essential life comes forth, the crust is 
thrown away, true progression commences, and per- 
fection follows. Apply the illustration to the future 
body, and what is the inevitable conclusion? Is it 
that the same body, in fact, which goes into the grave, 
is to come out of it, and that the old material is to be 
the identical material of the new body? Is not the 
simple and natural meaning of the passage this — 
that the old body gives place to a new one, though 
the essential forces remain? 

If we die wasted with consumption; if we die with 
limbs and features swollen and distorted with dropsy ; 
if we die on the battle-field, with limbs mangled and 
broken; if we die of old age, full of weakness and 
decrepitude; or if we die with intellect shrouded with 
delirium, so that friends can scarcely recognize the 
one beloved ;—if these, and a multitude of other di- 
vers accidents befall us, are we to enter those worn- 
out, diseased bodies again, and bear them through 


304 CREDO. 


eternity? Nay, this “vile body” is to be changed, 
‘* that it may be fashioned like unto Christ’s most glo- 
rious body.” As we have “borne the image of the 
earthy,” we are also to “bear the image of the heay- 
enly.” If so, we can triumph. ‘O death, where is 
thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!” The 
grave, with such a resurrection, has already conceded 
to mortals the victory. 

We pause at this point to consider briefly those 
passages which are claimed to teach a literal resur- 
rection of, instead of the resurrection from, the old 
body. The first passage we notice is from Ezekiel’s 
vision of the valley of dry bones. 

‘The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried 
me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in 
the midst of the valley which was full of bones; and 
caused me to pass by them round about; and, behold, 
there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, 
they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of 
man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord 
God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophe- 
Sy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry 
bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the 
Lord God unto these bones: Behold, I will cause 
breath to enter into you, and ye shall live; and I 
will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh 
upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath 
in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I 
am the Lord. So I prophesied, as I was commanded ; 
and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a 
shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his 
bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN, 305 


flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them 
above; but there was no breath in them. Then said 
he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son 
of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord 
God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and 
breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I 
prophesied, as he commanded me, and the breath 
came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon 
their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said 
unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole 
house of Israel ; behold, they say, Our bones are dried, 
and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. 
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the 
Lord God: Behold, O my people, I will open your 
graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, 
and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall 
know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your 
graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your 
graves; and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall 
live, and I shall place you in your own land; then 
shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and 
performed it, saith the Lord.” (Ezekiel xxxvii. I-15.) 

This passage is a startling representation of some- 
thing; but is that something the literal resurrection 
of the dead? On that barren field bone came to 
bone, sinew to sinew, the flesh was formed, the 
breath came, a great and mighty army stood before 
the prophet, perfect as life, and of veritable flesh 
and blood, bone and sinew. & Then said he unto 
me, Son of man, these bones are” — what? —a rep- 
resentation of the final resurrection ? There is not 
the slightest reference to it; but ‘these bones,” said 

20 


306 CREDO. 


the voice, “are the whole house of Israel.” The 
principle, then, here taught, is, that when the Jewish 
nation, whose moral and spiritual state resembled the 
lifeless condition of dried bones, shall turn to God, 
and do works of repentance, it will rise to a new 
spiritual and moral life, receiving honor again from 
the people of the earth. 

It is a national resurrection which is here taught, 
and one that has nothing whatever to do with a per- 
sonal resurrection of man. Let the Jewish nation but 
repent and acknowledge Christ to-day, and the origi- 
nal manhood and splendor of the children of Israel, 
as they were in the days of David and Solomon, 
would return upon them. The prophecy of Ezekiel 
would be literally fulfilled, and the Lord would bring 
them and place them again in their own land, in the 
bosom of the green hills of Judea. 

Another passage frequently quoted by the advocates 
of a literal resurrection of the body, is from the Book 
of Job. ‘And though,” says the patriarch, ‘ after 
my skin worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh 
shall I see God.” The true meaning of this passage 
is easily discovered, if we embrace in our view the 
whole drift of the afflicted man’s argument. He had 
been repeatedly charged with a want of integrity. 
His friends and enemies had told him that his sins 
were the cause of his misfortunes. In his heart Job 
knew this was false. He had faith that his past 
course would soon receive a vindication, and that 
his integrity would be proved and acknowledged. 
The harmony of the entire Book of Job depends 
upon taking this view. The passage, then, may be 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 307 


paraphrased thus, representing Job as speaking to his 
friends, and saying, “ You suppose I am forsaken of 
God on account of my sins. It is not true. To be 
sure I have not the means at present to disprove your 
position, or establish mine; but I believe that, though 
I am now suffering, and though I may suffer still 
more, even until the worms eat my skin, and then eat 
into my body, yet in my flesh, on the earth, and be- 
fore I die, I shall see, and you will see, my vindica- 
tion.” We need not add that his faith, that particular 
faith, was rewarded. God did appear; he reproved 
his enemies, approved Job, and blessed him; so that 
“the last days of Job were better than the first.” 

The argument for the resurrection of the old body, 
particle for particle, is also supported, it is claimed, 
by the fact that Christ’s natural body was the one 
raised from the tomb. 

Two suppositions are legitimately deduced from 
Christ’s literal resurrection: either that it was de- 
signed to be a seal of his commission, a manifest 
miracle, to confirm to the world his divinity, to re- 
assure the wavering faith of the disciples, and, being 
witnessed by more than five hundred different per- 
sons, to have vast influence in spreading Christianity 
during the first century; or else it was designed to be 
an exact type of our own resurrection. 

Which of these two suppositions is the more rea- 
sonable? Do the Scriptures, by word or hint, sug- 
gest that Christ’s resurrection was a type of ours? 
Can his resurrection in any proper sense be an exact 
type? Were the most important conditions of such a 
resurrection fulfilled by him? He was but three days 


308 CREDO. » 


in the grave, while we may slumber there for ages. 
He did not see corruption, while we are to become 
dust and ashes. But even if this difficulty could be 
removed, — though it cannot, — would it not seem far 
more reasonable, and infinitely more grand, to look 
upon our Saviour’s resurrection as the seal of his 
divinity, and the first fruits, not of the resurrection, 
but ‘‘of them that slept”? Where, then, is Christ’s 
physical body? it may be asked. Did it not ascend to 
heaven? Did not the disciples witness its ascension? 
Is he not there to-day? Flesh and blood are not there ! 
‘‘ Five dleeding wounds he bears,” is Watts’s poetry, 
not Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians. Christ’s glorified 
body was not the body shown to Thomas; save at the 
transfiguration, it was not seen by any of his disciples 
until after his ascension. It was then seen. Stephen 
saw it, crowned with dazzling splendor, on the day 
of his martyrdom; Paul saw it, above the glory of 
the sun, on the road to Damascus; John saw it in 
Patmos; great multitudes of dying Christians have 
seen it. Nay, we believe the vad/ey is dark and 
lonely to him only who knows not Christ. But this 
glorious body is not precisely the one which walked 
to Emmaus, or met Mary at the tomb. Where is that 
body? We do not know where it is. The record 
says nothing about it; and beyond the record we can- 
not go. We might say that the fleshy covering was 
annihilated, or that it underwent a gradual transfor- 
mation, or was cast off, and the gross materials flung 
back to earth. But it is only safe to say that He has 
a glorious body, which is now the type of our resur- 
rection body, without flesh, without blood, without 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 309 


spot, without blemish; the embodiment of beauty, 
the home of truth, the splendid tabernacle of the 
Holy Ghost, the perfect manifestation of the Godhead, 
and the likeness of every child that is born into the 
kingdom of heaven. With a hope based upon such 
a view, we are not of all men most miserable, for 
through this fact, as through the gospel of Christ, life 
and immortality are brought to light. May we not, 
then, conclude that Christ’s resurrection was designed 
for a seal of his ministry, rather than an exact type 
of our resurrection; that it furnishes for us the hope 
that as he lived after death, so also shall we live after 
death; and that our resurrection body will not be the 
present, but one like his—infinitely better than the 
present, of infinitely greater capacity, and of sublimer 
beauty ? 

This interpretation of the passages in question re- 
lieves us at once from the necessity of employing in 
Our reconstruction the old particles of matter which 
have lost their identity, which have been organized 
and reorganized again and again, which have entered 
into other bodies, into the vegetable and animal king- 
doms, into the atmosphere, and the clouds that float 
above us. These old particles, that have become dis- 
eased, and worn out, and cast off, if our interpretation 
be correct, are not the material which shall constitute 
the body that is to be, but new particles of a new 
material, which is capable of bestowing surprising 
activity and marvellous endurance, will enter into 
the resurrection organism, and render it subject to 
none of the ills or accidents of life. 

the Connection between the Present and the Fu- 


310 CREDO. 


ture Bodies. — Another fact, clearly brought out by 
the apostle, and supported by the figure employed 
by our Saviour, is, that though the present and future 
bodies differ in certain respects, there exists, never- 
theless, an important connection between them. Un- 
less we admit this, the force of the illustration, which 
implies a vital connection between the seed and the 
plant, is lost. The kernel of grain, as it falls into the 
earth, looks as hard and lifeless as a pebble in the 
street. But, by resting in the soil, moistened by 
showers, and warmed by the sun, it sends forth its 
shoots, its blade, its flower, and then other fruit like 
itself. ‘* Except,” said our Saviour, ‘¢a corn of wheat 
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but 
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Why death 
is ordinarily necessary to develop this connection, or 
what the connection is, we cannot tell. We know the 
facts, and here we rest. 

Take another illustration. The grub which is to- 
day stripping the tree of its verdure, feeding upon the 
most ordinary kind of food, creeping slowly from limb 
to limb, or crawling upon the ground, to-morrow will 
enter a state of seeming death; will wind itself up in 
a kind of shroud, be concealed as in a coffin, and 
buried in the earth. A month later, it will come 
forth from its sepulchre, no longer to lie on the earth, 
or crawl upon the branch. Clad in beauty, it will 
traverse the fields of air and light, feed upon the 
sweetest flowers that bloom by the wayside, flutter- 
ing in our path, and sipping nectar as from the hand 
of God. The connection which exists between that 
torpor of death and subsequent life we do not see. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 311 


We only know that this seeming death is necessary 
in order to develop the connection between the old 
life and the new one. The seed and the grub both 
follow the laws of their being —a law which is uni- 
versal. Organized matter in one form, becoming dis- 
organized, is reorganized into other forms, which exist 
under new conditions. In view of such a law, it is 
by no means difficult to admit the fact, that if the old 
body has in it the germ of a new one, —and the apostle 
and our Saviour both teach that it has, —then from the 
old body, at the command of God, will develop a new 
one; whether the old one be buried in the sea or on 
the land, it matters not. We must bear in mind, how- 
ever, that this will not be, strictly speaking, a resur- 
rection of the old body, though the expression may 
be allowed, but is, more properly, a resurrection from 
the old body. The term ‘ resurrection of the body” 
never occurs in the Scriptures, and the term ‘ resur- 
rection from the dead” is more frequently employed 
than ‘‘ resurrection of the dead.” ‘These expressions 
are suggestive, and call for something more than a 
casual examination of the point under consideration. 
We dwell upon it a moment longer. 

Some physiologists tell us that the materials of the 
human body change every seven years. -Others say 
they change several times yearly. The periods are 
thus made to vary from a few months to several years. 
But are there not certain facts which go to qualify or 
correct both estimates? Is there not something in the 
body which men have overlooked; something, per- 
haps, which the dissecting knife has not yet found, 
nor the skilful microscope detected? May not a par- 


312 CREDO. 


ticle of vaccine virus, or a score of different contagious 
diseases, produce such an alteration in our physical 
organization, that no number of physiological changes 
can destroy their effect? Is it not true that the bite 
of a rabid dog may not result in hydrophobia for 
twenty years, and then terminate fatally? May not 
a mother bear a child which in youth appears to be 
in perfect health, but who, perhaps, at twenty years 
of age, dies of some disease inherited from the mother, 
of which she herself may subsequently die? From 
these and other facts we conclude that there remains 
an essential substance in man, which does not appear 
and then disappear, like the gross material of the 
body, but which remains undisturbed through life. 
Lhe anatomical autocrat must again wipe his spec- 
tacles. There are other substances than skin and 
bones. The world is awaiting a new and improved 
science of physiology. But in the mean time is it un- 
reasonable to assume that this abiding essence is to 
the physical body what the vital germ is to the wheat? 
May there not be in the human body formative, or 


progressive, or unfolding energies, as in the kernel of > 


corn? May there not be, inwrapped in this inner man- 
tle of our unchanging and adhering physical identity, 
forces, which, under certain favorable conditions, as 
in case of the seed, shall predominate over the con- 
servative powers of the body, and develop a future 
spiritual organization? Does not the existence of 
forces presuppose organism? Do not the formative 
forces sometimes show themselves in the grain while 
standing in the field? Are there not blades which 
appear on the ripened stalk, under the influence of 


a 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 313 


heat and moisture, before the sickle has done its 
work? If so, there is nothing unreasonable in the 
belief that the dead of the earth and of the sea, and 
that those who are alive upon the earth in the last 
day, shall be clad in the new garments God shall 


give them. 
‘The wonder is not half so great 
Of ours, as is the rising of the wheat.” 


Such, then, is the scriptural doctrine of the resur- 
rection from the dead, as it is especially set forth in 
this important passage from Corinthians. Whatever 
may be the difficulties surrounding the subject, how- 
ever mysterious the questions that spring from it, we 
are to accept it, not because it is difficult, not because 
it is mysterious, but because God says it is true; and 
that is enough. Whatever the Bible teaches on this 
or any other doctrine is true—true yesterday, true 
to-day, and forever true. The believing Christian 
standing upon this rock is stronger than the whole 
world standing upon any other foundation. The 
unbelieving world is, to-day, unstable as the sea. 
The needle must point to an inspired revelation, as to 
its only star of hope. When it does, the mariner is 
safe, though the clouds and night are dark. 

Ls the Scriptural Theory of the Resurrection ra- 
tional ?— The intuitive demands of the soul underlie 
all true and all known theories of philosophy. That 
we must ultimately be guided in our investigations 
and conclusions by inner and hidden impulses and 
desires, if not by special inspiration, is a principle 
admitted by the rationalism of Germany, as well as 
by the radicalism of America. With this admitted 


314 CREDO. 


principle of investigation before us,—nay, furnished 
us, — We may apply it to the subject in hand. 

Can there be found anything in human desires, in- 
stincts, or reason, which opposes the first deduction 
from the passage under discussion —that the soul is 
to be embodied in the future world? Is it not true 
that there is an instinctive and positive demand, in 
every human nature, for a body to dwell in? Who 
can think of the future life with pleasure, without 
thinking of it as organized? The idea of a purely 
spiritual existence, unembodied, thus to last forever, 
and complete its destiny in the universe of God, is 
painful and repulsive. The sceptic, whatever his 
views of revelation may be, unconsciously clings to 
the union of soul and body. The natural idea we 
have of a disembodied spirit is that of a wandering, 
restless ghost. As naturally as we breathe, we seize 
upon the idea of a home for, and an embodiment of, 
the soul— one that is perfect, and under complete 
control. Such a condition, during our future exist- 
ence, can alone satisfy our desires. Any other con- 
dition would never have been dreamed of, but for 
enmity to the truth, and a false interpretation of the 
Scriptures. 

But more than this: human nature, to be complete, 
must have some kind of organism. Human nature 
is the necessary union of both body and spirit. 

All believe that the highest possible happiness is in 
store for some part, at least, of the human family. 
That condition cannot be attained, in any case, with- 
out an embodiment. Our future perfection and hap- 
piness do not depend upon the change of our nature 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 315 


into something unlike itself, not upon its absorption 
into the Deity, not upon its development into divini- 
ties, but simply upon its completion. Revelation 
entertains no other view. Perfect humanity, or hu- 
man nature, and our happiness, is secured, and in 
that way only. Thus, upon high and strictly rational 
grounds, we may assert that a bodily organism in the 
future life is a positive necessity of our nature. It is 
a revelation, not from the Bible alone, but from every 
human soul. Those who go back of the Hebrew for 
an original text will find this doctrine a transcript 
of the divine mind. It is as vital to our growth and 
perfect development as the exercise of any other law 
of our being. The application of this principle can 
be carried a step farther. Not merely a body, but a 
zew body, is desired. The old one will not answer. 
We intuitively demand a body which shall be free 
from the gross materials of the present. We instinc- 
tively look for an improvement, and could not feel 
satisfied if we thought the same accidents awaited 
us in the future life which throng our path in this. 
We would change tenements rather than be at the 
trouble and expense of moving out only to move back 
again. The passion of the race runs to repairs — to 
new and better buildings. We look for a body in 
which no hidden disease, as in the present one, shall 
lurk, or can lurk. We expect to be free from anxiety 
lest death shall spring upon us at every unguarded 
moment. We desire a body which the heat of sum- 
mer and the cold of winter dare alike powerless in 
affecting ; one which can withstand the encroachments 
of chill and fever, of weakness and age; one which 


316 CREDO. 


shall continue upon an endless and deathless journey 
without pain or weariness. 

An Organism between Death and the Resurrec- 
tion. — This involves an inquiry which does not neces- 
sarily belong to this subject, but which deserves atten- 
tion. If the soul demands an organism in which to 
dwell, if it does not lose its, consciousness at death, and 
if the resurrection does not take place until the end of 
the world, what is man’s condition in this intermedi- 
ate period or state? Various theories are advocated. 
Some writers resort to an unconscious intermediate 
state. Others claim that the resurrection takes place 
at death; others, again, that the soul is conscious, 
but is reduced to ** pure essence,” or a “ metaphysical 
entity ;” a ‘substance uncompounded, without parts 
and without place.’ The first and second class of 
views are unscriptural. We cannot, therefore, enter- 
tainthem. The third is unsatisfactory and meaning- 
less. 

Those philosophical terms, to most men, denote 
nothing but nonsense. If they mean anything, it is, 
that the soul, at death, goes nowhere, and becomes 
nothing. We reject all this. The soul is either 
nothing or something. If it is something, and not 
infinite, it must have a definite location. If it has 
location, and if it is the centre of natural or super- 
natural forces, it must have a definite natural or su- 
pernatural organism. The material is unimportant. 
Furnish us with that substance which results from 
the correlation of galvanic forces, and we can produce 
from it a galvanic man who can walk. Let God 
breathe into him a soul, and he is complete. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 317 


The spiritualistic notion of “circles” of dead friends 
revolving over us in some kind of gassy media is 
intolerable. 

How refreshing it is to turn to the Scriptures! The 
impression they leave is, that the condition of the dead 
is purely objective. There is nothing unreal or spec- 
tral. Dreamy and shadowy phantoms find no place 
in the Scriptures. The organisms of the dead in the 
intermediate state are as real as those of angels. We 
are no less organized after than before the resurrec- 
tion. Let us have done with spiritualistic and anti- 
scriptural notions, which reduce the universe to gas, 
and our deceased friends to atmospheric phenomena. 
We are not to become ghosts and nothings. Such’ 
representations are hideous. We escape from them 
as from shadows at nightfall. When we die we shall 
see friends, and know them as certainly before as after 
the resurrection. 

Is not this statement confirmed by the strongest 
evidence which the subject can possibly receive? 
When the eyes of mortals are closing in death, do 
they not frequently seem to Open upon sweet and 
well-known faces? Do not dear and familiar names 
sometimes break from their closing lips? The wel- 
come of friends long since dead is heard in the heav- 
enly world before the farewells are hushed in this. 
There is a moment when the physical organisms of 
this world are seen in company with the spiritual 
organisms of the other world, and where the blending 
voices of both worlds are audible. 

But if this spiritual organism be so complete, why 
the need of new resurrection bodies? What if we do 


318 CREDO. 


not know? God says we are to have them; that is 
enough. We take his word for it. It may be that the 
dead can better communicate (impressionally) with 
the living by means of the intermediate organism. 
The resurrection body might preclude this happy min- 
istry. But the communication among the dead may 
be more perfect through a resurrection body. Until 
that is received, the dead may remain in an anteroom, 
listening to the splendid music of the inner and larger 
hall, without fully participating in its realities. They 
are consciously happy or consciously miserable. The 
only question is one of degree and relation. But 
~ when probation ends, when the dead are no longer 
needed as ministering or tempting spirits, when the 
roll of human history shall be completed, then human 
nature will receive this additional completion. The 
instinctive demands of the soul will be fully gratified. 
This will take place in the general resurrection, at 
the end of the world. Science interposes no objec- 
tions to these views. It is our friend. In its more 
recent deductions respecting the correlation and con- 
servation of forces, it kneels before revelation and 
embraces it. Science does not claim that the only 
substances are those which are seen and handled. 
There is something besides rocks and gravel-beds. 
There are bodies terrestrial and bodies celestial. 
There are bodies natural, bodies spiritual, and bodies 
Spiritualized. These may or may not have the prop- 
erties of matter, and yet be the most tangible sub- 
stances in the universe. On scientific grounds we may 
not be able fully to solve these wonderful questions, 
The facts they involve none can deny. Revelation 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 319 


discloses them. Upon this we plant our feet, and 
await, in joyful expectation, the ‘day and hour.” 

The Connection between the Natural and the Spirit- 
wal Body, feational. ‘There is a deep philosophy un- 
derlying the impulse that prompts us to visit the rest- 
ing-place of departed friends. We have embodied the 
true theory in our word cemetery, meaning a sleeping- 
place. We instinctively feel that there is a value in 
the old body above its visible associations. No other 
piece of clay is like that which has encircled a dear 
friend. There is something which underlies these ' 
human impulses and sentiments. We desire a pleas- 
ant lot in the graveyard. We are choice in its deco- 
rations. It seems fitting to have the church and the 
graveyard identical. We feel that it is a kind of mis- 
fortune to have our friends buried in the sea, where 
we cannot sit by their graves. At the prospect of 
our own death, we select the spot for our burial. “I 
should like,” says Burke, ‘that my dust should min- | 
.gle with &zzdred dust; the good old expression, 
Samily burying-ground, has something pleasing in 
it.” These natural desires and expressions of the 
soul, and the elegant decorations of our cemeteries, 
contain more deep and pure philosophy, on the sub- 
ject of the resurrection, than all the unbelieving pro- 
fessors of Cambridge, on this or the other side of 
the sea, ever dreamed of. 


‘‘ There’s a narrow ridge in the graveyard 
Would scarce stay a child in his race; 
But to me and my thought it is wider 
Than the star-sown vague of space.” 


320 CREDO. 


But why, unless there exists a connection, though 
an inexplicable one, between the “ sleeping-ground ” 
and our future existence? Unless the germ and 
treasure of another life lies hidden beneath the sod, 
or slumbers within the tomb, the entire school of 
Renan may as well drop their pens and seal their 
lips; for the most sublime and the most reliable foun- 
dation of all truth and philosophy set forth by them 
has no basis whatever. 

But how satisfying, as well as inspiring, is it to find 
in the book of God so pleasing a doctrine so fully 
and beautifully disclosed! Is not this doctrine satis- 
factory in its details even? Think you we shall fail 
in a desire, at last, to revisit this old, gray world, 
just before its final conflagration? It has witnessed 
our trials and our tears, our pleasures and joys. Here 
have been our birthplace, the home of our childhood, 
the fields where we have labored for Christ, and met 
the hard discipline of life. This is the world which 
holds our bodies and those of our friends. How can 
this earth, wherever in the universe we may have 
wandered, fail of exciting our interest? Would it 
not be a pleasant experience, as well as a dictate 
of philosophy, if, in the graveyard of ourselves and 
friends, our spirits should at last meet to bid an 
eternal and ever-present welcome to each other, and 
a final farewell to the crumbling world and the 
crumbling body? Would it not be well, as the 
old world passes away, and the new Jerusalem de- 
scends from God out of heaven upon the earth, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband, if we 
together shall triumphantly awake in the bodily like- 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 321 


ness of our Redeemer, and enter upon a destiny 
ever-glorious, never-ending? The response of every 
heart must be, ‘*Amen, so let it be.” 


** Awake, thou wintry earth; 
Fling off thy sadness! 
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth 
Your ancient gladness. 
We sleep, we rise.” 


Lhe Future Body will be the Perfect Expression 
of the Character formed in the Present Life. —In 
the language of revelation, “ God giveth it a body as 
it hath pleased him, and to every seed hzs own,” or 
appropriate “body.” The body is to be perfectly 
adapted to the character. This condition involves a 
very simple principle of our being. The present 
body, if we may be allowed the language, constantly 
seeks to give expression to the soul that inhabits it. 
The formative energy within us, which is an attribute 
of the soul, taking the food we eat, by laws of diges- 
tion, circulation, and secretion, forms a body which 
resembles the inner man. It is a natural and me- 
chanical adjustment of principles and parts. A good 
man looks like a good man, and a bad man looks like 
a bad mah. This is the tendency. In process of 
time, the tendency is sure to show itself. Persons 
thrown much in one another’s society, who remain 
on terms of intimacy and harmony, as, for instance, 
a husband and wife, will come to be alike, and then 
to look alike. These tendencies of expression must 
be very active and powerful, for the soul appears in 
and stamps itself upon every feature of the face, and 

21 


322 CREDO. 


upon every member of the body. It not only flashes 
from the eye, but shows itself in the foot and on the 
hand. The shape of the finger, to a detective, will 
indicate the pickpocket. The shape of the nose de- 
cided Napoleon in the selection of his generals. 
These are the laws of our physical organization. Is 
it not rational to believe that these same laws will, 
in the future life, give to every seed its own and ap- 
propriate body? God has few laws that are dead 
letters. Our characters will eternally and inevitably 
impress themselves upon everything with which they 
come in contact. The whole man will appear. Every 
thought he has cherished, as well as every governing 
principle of his life, will show itself, must show itself, 
as the soul takes to itself the spiritualized and ethereal- 
ized matter, and builds up, out of the seed sown, the 
new and eternal tabernacle. We shall know and we 
shall be known. The whole story of life will be told, 
whether we will or not, and whether we are good or 
bad. The best man will look like the best; the worst 
man will look like the worst. If we are the children 
of God, that fact will be stamped upon the future 
body in characters of living light and beauty. All 
who have the image of Christ in the heart will have 
their new bodies fashioned after Cirist’s most glorious 
body. Every child of heaven must, from the necessity 
of things, in the metropolis of God, have Christ’s 
name written on the forehead. He will have his 
stamp of royalty, his insignia of office, this ancient 
coat-of-arms of God’s family. He is in the line of 
kings and priests. These laws of natural development 
will not be impeded by disease, accident, premature 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 323 


death, or old age, as in this life. The bodies of all 
the redeemed, oid and young, perfect or deformed, in 
this world, will in the future life be completed. ‘But 
the prattling child, whose life was nipped in the bud, 
may I not see it as it was,” asks the fond mother? 
The question is well. But what of the youthful 
mother, who dies and leaves a child who lives to 
old age? Is it the infant, or the bent and gray old 
man, who is to meet and call her mother? A hus. 
band dies at five and twenty, and leaves his fair young 
wife, who lives on five and fifty years. Will he call 
that weary, wrinkled woman, whose whitened locks 
bespeak years enough to be his grandam, wife? 
Completion and perfection will be the law. Through 
all these years that wife has talked of their meeting 
in another world, as if her husband were dead but 
yesterday; and Separated from her former self, she 
has ever been thinking of the happiness of that come- 
ly girl who seemed to have died with him. It is 
completion in every instance which will give most 
joy in heaven. The impeded laws and undeveloped 
tendencies will then bring forth perfect fruit. The 
dwarf and infant will Srow to manhood. The heal- 
ing power of Christ will make the lame walk, the 
blind see, and the old young. The deranged mind 
will be clothed, as in earlier days, with love and 
innocence. Every one will retain his own and old 
identity. Upon every feature of those who are te- 
deemed will glow the radiance and serenity of heaven. 
Each will wear the full and perfect image and super- 
scription of the Master of the F east. 

But another principle is equally true. The charac- 


3,24. CREDO. ‘ 


ter of the wicked will be written upon his features 
with startling distinctness. There will then be no 
cloak to cover him. He will be destitute of the 
power of a deceptive smile, and of that false pretence 
which now ‘subserves his selfish purposes. All the 
hate, all the remorse, all the disgrace, and all the 
crafty cunning of the soul will find, must find, perfect 
expression. The wretch will look like a wretch. 
The vicious will look vicious. The sensual and 
devilish man in this world will look like a sensual 
and devilish man in the next world. He could not 
help it if he would. The judgment books are fully 
written, and in a legible hand. They are open to 
the most public inspection. Between the sheep and 
the goats a child will be able to distinguish. The 
man without the wedding garment may, will, be 
speechless. Conceit and bluster will have no place 
there. Judgment will begin in the bodily tabernacle. 
Over all will brood the sorrow, which at last ‘* biteth 
like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.” All know 
the refuge: let all accept it. a 


Recs: 
LAY ped oi 


foi “i , , ~ “a 
ee sat eon, wie ah { J 
. , a ae 9 : r* 4 
’ i 


> 
2 


‘And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same 
night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with 
two chains; and the keepers before the door kept the prison.” 
iaczs, xii. 6. 


“At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, 
and said unto his seryants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen 
from the dead.” Matthew xiv. eke s 


“Yet still there whispers the small voice within, 
Heard through gain’s silence, and o’er glory’s din; 
Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod, 


Man’s conscience is the oracle of God.” 
Byron. 


*“*O treacherous Conscience! while she seems to sleep 
On rose and myrtle, lulled with siren song, 


The sly informer minutes every fault, 
And her dread diary with horror fills ; 


° ye e . e e 


Unnoted notes each moment misapplied ; 

In leaves more durable than leaves of brass 

Writes our whole history; which Death shall read 

In every pale delinquent’s private ear, 

And Judgment publish; publish to more worlds 

Than this; and endless age in groans resound.” 
YOUNG. 


‘We cannot shake off the conviction that there is a divine, 


as well as human, element in conscience.” 
JAMES WALKER. 


(326) 


PET 


THE NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
CONSCIENCE. 


- 


OME philologist has remarked that ‘a language 

is often wiser, not merely than the vulgar, but 
even than the wisest of those who speak it; being 
like amber in its efficacy to circulate the electric 
spirit of truth, it is like amber in embalming the 
relics of ancient wisdom.” Granting that language 
is a divine gift to men, these embalmed treasures be- 
come invaluable. Every primitive root holds the 
germ of a God-given truth. 

Nature of Conscience. — Applying the above prin- 
ciple to “conscience,” some writers * have placed it 
among the most solemn words in the English lan- 
guage. That which it represents is seen to be some- 
thing more than an ordinary faculty of the mind. It 
has to do with what every other faculty overlooks, and 
is linked in its operations with something outside and 
entirely independent of the human soul. 

Before developing this thought, we may note certain 


* Among whom is Trench. 
(327) 


328 CREDO. 


verbal definitions which have grown out of an obser- 
vation of the workings of conscience, and which may 
aid us in arriving at a correct understanding of it. 

‘¢ Conscience,” says John Foster, ‘*‘ communicates 
with something mysteriously great, which is without 
the soul, and above it, and everywhere.” Chatfield 
calls it ‘*‘ Heaven’s silent oracle.” Young speaks of 
it as “*a God in man.” Dr. South says, ‘It is the eye 
of the soul.” Robert Burton describes it as ‘an epit- 
omy of hell.” The Egyptians represent it in their 
hieroglyphics by a mill which grinds our souls with 
the remembrance of past sin. Ammianus, a Greek 
epigrammatist, describes it as the queen of causes 
and moderator of things, which pulls down the 
proud, raises up and encourages the good. The an- 
cient poets universally call it Nemesis— the aven- 
ging fate which sooner or later overtakes the guilty 
and brings them back to justice. These definitions, 
which attach to conscience something outside of man, 
accord with those operations of our own souls which 
inevitably result from the consciousness of a right or 
a wrong action. All men feel, when condemned by 
the conscience, that they are more than self-con- 
demned. No one can say that conscience is any- 
thing less than the normal working of an attribute 
of the soul, put into operation by the presence or 
approach of the Infinite Judge. It is the representa- 
tive of an invisible ruler. It furnishes alarms and 
apprehensions which, on natural grounds, are unac- 
countable. ‘It is a dark unknown,”* which threat. 
ens men with death when they have done evil. 


* Blair. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 329 


There is a controlling element involved in the con- 
science, which we can neither see nor resist. Guilty 
men are met by an omnipresent danger. They find 
in every object something to dread. They hate soli- 
tudes and midnights. There is no other faculty 
which compels man _ to recognize God; no other 
faculty beholds in him the avenger of guilt. In the 
conscience God seems to walk the earth in his splen- 
dor and purity. No man thinks of approving him- 
self on account of the sublime and blameless decisions 
of his conscience. They result from no virtue in him 
— at least so he feels. This is remarkable, unless the 
verdicts of conscience are not man’s, but God’s. 

Though there were a thousand divine voices heard 
within men, urging to obedience, they might, for all 
that, be a thousand-fold the children of evil, and have 
nothing to indicate that their spiritual ruin from the 
fall was not complete from turret to lowest founda- 
tion. If, however, there exists this duplex character 
in our spiritual being, if that which seems to speak 
so well for us, and which has led some to suppose 
that our ruin was only partial, be the divine voice, 
then all phenomenal and perplexing questions disap- 
pear. Our fall is as entire as if the voice were never 
heard. If this be true, the age of patriarchs returns. 
The voice which spoke to Adam in the garden, and 
to Cain in the field, continues to communicate with 
us, as distinctly, though not as audibly, as with them. 

The “suz” of “ suneidesis” and the “con” of 
*“ conscire” become, not a knowing with one’s self, 
but a knowing with some one else outside one’s self. 
All feel, if there be such another ‘“knower,” that he is 


330 CREDO. 


God. If conscience is that faculty through which the 
soul holds direct communications with the divine, as 
it communicates with the past through memory, and 
with the present through the senses (which none 
deny), then may we not assume that those feelings 
of approval or disapproval which follow the decision 
of the judgment, that we have intended to do a right 
or a wrong action, result chiefly or solely from the 
direct approval or disapproval of the omniscient One? 
Certainly no other hypothesis can harmonize so many 
existing discrepancies respecting our moral sentiments 
and faculties. What else except this union of the 
divine and human in the conscience could exercise 
such dreadful power? Admit this union, and no 
wonder that society is made a terror and solitude a 
hell to wicked men. How kingly and supreme is 
conscience! No condition-can depose it, nor bars bolt 
it out. It is able to pierce through an armed battal- 
ion, make discordant the sweetest music, tear off any 
mask, and dash every smile from the face. It in- 
stantly comprehends any and every point of law; asks 
no authority, but is itself authority. Its accusations 
are never noisy, but always terrible. It plants a 
girdle of thorns about a man’s heart, and holds it 
there. It can make what Byron calls “a hell in 
man.” All the opiates in the world cannot quiet it. 
It breaks up the harmony of the social circle in man, 
by waging a civil war. It can silence all outside 
congratulations, and drown all friendly adulations. 
No king can look it out of countenance, or warrior 
conquer it. How accurately and impartially it 
judges! It masters completely the man of guilt, 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 331 


holding him down, grinding him down, overawing 
and overwhelming him. 

Can this wonderful principle in man be merely a 
sentiment of the soul, or nothing but the normal op- 
eration of an intellectual faculty? That which gives 
such awful force to the word, and such overwhelming 
effect to the operations of conscience; which prompts 
the entire race to do right, and restrains them from 
the wrong; which bestows such perfect peace upon 
the innocent, and sends such fearful agitation and con- 
demnation into the hearts of the guilty, — is no mental 
or mortal power: that startling voice we hear, is 
God’s. 

The Universality and Constancy of Conscience. — 
if an omnipresent spirit and the most ordinary degree 
of intelligence are the only prerequisite conditions 
upon which an act of conscience necessarily depends, 
its universality and constancy must become at once 
a necessity. ‘These characteristics of conscience are 
also attributed to it by all speculative views, and by 
universal experience. 

Some nations have been in possession of what oth- 
ers have not. Savages are often destitute of taste, 
refinement, and even of the rudiments of civilization ; 
but no nation, and no individual of any nation, have 
ever yet been found destitute of conscience. Like 
death, it assails the civilized and uncivilized; mon- 
archs as well as peasants. Among all classes it 
makes its clear distinction between just and unjust, 
between duty and crime. It is coeval with human 
nature. The brethren of Joseph, three thousand five 
hundred years ago, were affected concerning their 


332 CREDO. 


conduct by the same feelings as those of which we are 
now conscious. ‘And they said one to another, We 
are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we 
saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, 
and we would not hear; therefore is this distress 
come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, 
Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the 
child; and ye would not hear? therefore behold also 
his blood is required.” (Gen. xlii. 21, 22.) Cicero 
gave the world one of the best descriptions of con- 
Science ever written. It is from his ‘‘ De Republica.” 
‘“‘ There exists a true law, pervading all minds. .. . 
This law cannot be annulled or overruled; no senate 
can loose us from it; no jurist can explain it away. - 
It is not one law at Athens and another at Rome, one 
at present and another hereafter, but one law perpet- 
ual and immutable.” 

How forcibly this voice of two thousand years-ago, 
from the corrupt court of Rome, confirms the words 
of the apostle, ‘They that have not the law are a 
law unta themselves.” That is, with or without a 
written revelation, there is a divine law—rather a 
divine dawgiver —in the breast of every responsible 
agent; one who approves if we obey, who condemns 
if we disobey. It is a law which is equally binding 
upon Greek and Roman, Jew and Gentile, Barbarian, 
Scythian, bond and free. 

Its universality, though more apparent, is no more 
certain, than the constancy or unintermittency of its 
action. No act passes unnoticed by conscience. 
Sooner or later, human conduct receives its sanction 
or condemnation. We know that many men appear 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 333 


never to be troubled by conscience, who evidently 
ought to be. These are only apparent exceptions to 
the constancy of conscience, which so often meet and 
deceive us. There is a world of indifference about 
‘us, which is only affectation. There is a world of 
mirth, which is only art. There is music without 
harmony, and laughter without joy. There is a friy- 
olous life, a turbulent state of society, which seems to 
carry upon its surface confidence and contentment, but 
which is only a ‘fearful looking forward to a fiery in- 
dignation.” When least serious and most indifferent, 
many men could best express their heart-feelings in 
the words of Dryden, — 


“* Here, here it lies: a lump of lead by day, 
And in my short, distracted slumbers, 
The hag that haunts my dreams.” 


We often say that men stupefy their consciences, or 
sear them as with a hot iron. Some very wicked 
men seem to go round their conscience, hide from it, 
laugh and sleep in spite of it. But such lulls do not 
last forever. The soldier misses his camp-companion 
most when the tumult of battle is over. Like a judi- 
cious parent, it is God’s way to reserve the worst pun- 
ishment until after all excitement is past. There is 
an awful power in a calm but temporary reserve. 
When business is driven the hardest, conscience keeps 
on posting her books all the same; every item is 
noted; and on a quiet day they are thrown open for 
inspection. ‘I have my serious hours,” is every 
honest man’s confession. ‘* The wind bloweth where 
(and when) it listeth; thou canst not tell whence it 


334. CREDO. 


cometh and whither it goeth.” These occasional — 
sometimes distant, sometimes indistinct — movements 
of the conscience-faculty are just as real and positive 
remonstrances of the Holy Ghost, delivered to the 
soul against a sinful course of life, as if spoken from’ 
the sky in a voice of thunder. 

One element of conscience is the consciousness of 
moral action. It must therefore be intensely and con- 
stantly alive to every moral intention. Though seared, 
it has its quick. The Infinite One speaks, and the 
crust is broken. Solomon calls conscience, for this 
reason, “the candle of the Lord.” When lighted, no 
human act can extinguish it, though it be put for a 
time under a bed or ina measure. There is for man 
no solitude in the universe. Man cannot hide from 
himself or from the Holy Spirit. Conscience is like 
the eye of a good portrait: it will follow us wherever 
we go. It is an eye-witness, in the words of the apos-_ 
tle, ‘ever bearing witness.” Unless there is a change 
of life, it will at last become the full, clear, intense, 
resplendent, and piercing eye of the Godhead. 

Conscience the Universal and Ultimate Rule of 
Lluman Action.— That our conduct must, in all cases, 
conform to the dictates of conscience, is a principle 
admitted by all, and one which is necessarily implied 
in the view we have taken of its nature. If it is the 
direct command and decision of the Holy Spirit to the 
soul, there can, of course, be nothing beyond, though 
there may be something parallel with it. 

The conscience is plainly distinguishable from the 
moral sense, or faculty. It is not the educator of the 
race. Our education comes from experience, from 


ee 


hat en Se 


< oe Ne 


= 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 335 


men, and from books. Conscience never presumes to 
tell a man what is right, or what is wrong, in the ab- 
stract. It is not supposed even to recognize any dis- 
tinction respecting what is right, or what is wrong, in 
themselves considered. It presupposes, on the other 
hand, that every man knows himself what is right 
and what is wrong. Its plea, and its only plea, to 
man is, “Try to do what you think is right.” _ Its only 
condemnation is, ‘* You have not tried to do what you 
believe to be right.” Guilt can be charged upon us 
only at that point. At that point it is charged upon 
us. So far, then, as the ultimate rule of action is con- 
cerned, it makes no difference how ignorant or how 
wise we are. It is immaterial whether we are in 
heathen or Christian lands; with or without the law ; 
devotees to the pope, or Mahomet. Paul has clearly 
expressed the correct view: ‘ For there is no respect 
of persons with God. For as many as have sinned 
without law shall also perish without law; and as 
many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by 
the law (for not the hearers of the law are just be- 
fore God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do 
by nature the things contained in the law, these, hav-" 
ing not the law, are a law unto themselves. Which 
show the work of the law written in their hearts, 
their conscience also bearing witness, and their 
thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing 
one another), in the day when God shall judge the 
secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gos- 
pel.” (Rom. ii. 11-17.) 

Independent of the Bible, then, conscience, so far 


336 CREDO. 


as our conduct is concerned, echoes the oracle of the 
God-Spirit. Independent of the apostles, it binds 
and it frees us. Many admit this, but pervert it. 
They assert that man has in conscience all that is 
necessary for his guidance, and that a written revela- 
tion is, therefore, superfluous. So far as the moral 
quality of our conduct is concerned, it is true we 
have, without a written revelation, all that is neces- 
sary. We have within us the universal and wl¢émate 
rule of action; but we have not within us the z/¢2- 
mate rule or standard of right. We can discover 
the moral quality of our action through this union of 
the divine and human understanding in the soul of 
man; but our knowledge of what is absolutely right, 
in itself considered, must be decided upon and dis- 
closed by the Spirit Divine, independent of our co- 
operation. This is a knowledge which we cannot. 
discern, and which God has never whispered to the 
race save through inspired men. The telling us to do 
right is not the telling of what is right. How wisely 
these things are ordered! No one can say that the 
Creator has required overmuch, or that he has bur- 
dened the soul with complicated questions. 

A sinless life has not the least embarrassment in the 
divine economy. If we follow conscience, we shall 
not sin, though we may do what is in itself wrong ; 
we may do wrong conscientiously, not knowing that 
it is wrong; but that is not sin. 

It is at this point we discover we have need, for our 
highest good, of something besides a universal and 
ultimate rule of action; that is, a universal and ulti- 
mate rule of right also. The perfection of the race 


=" 


PI LS Se AT Ps Se = 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 337 


requires both conscience and a written revelation. 
Remove the controlling power of conscience, and we 
undermine the foundation on which revelation builds 
its power of commanding the heart. Remove revela- 
tion, and we are left in darkness. When men follow 
both these voices, or both combined in one, then they 
cease to sin, and cease to. do wrong likewise. When 
the apostle was arguing that ‘if the Gentiles do by 
nature the things contained in the law, they are a law 
unto themselves,” he anticipated the very question 
that would be asked, and answered at the same time 
all the objections of those who see no necessity for a 
written revelation. ‘* What advantage, then, hath the 
Jew?” isthe question he expected would be asked, 
and the one that is often asked. Thus he answered 
it: ‘Much every way; chiefly because that unto 
them were committed the oracles of God.” That is, 
they who have the Scriptures have the ultimate stan- 
dard of right. They have this in addition to the 
universal and ultimate rule of action, which is the 
conscience. 

It is sometimes asked, Why send missionaries to 
the heathen? What advantage is gained? Will they sin 
less? May be not. May there not be as much sin in 
nominally Christian as in pagan lands? Possibly — 
perhaps more. What advantage then? Much every 
way; chiefly this: that when men obey conscience, 
or when they try not to sin, with an open Bible in 
their hands, they will do right, as well as not sin. It 
saves the experience of burning the hand to a crisp, 
in order to learn that fire is hot. Conscience simply 
leaves the man on trial to do what he ¢hzzs is right. 

22 


338 CREDO. 


Revelation puts him on trial to do what is right. 
Conscience is God’s school-szaster, whose mission is 
to frown or smile. Revelation is his school-zzstructor. 

Give the Bible to the world, and the Spartan mother 
would no longer teach her son to steal, that he might 
become a more strategic warrior, but would teach him 
the love of patriotism, based upon pure and high prin- 
ciples. It would teach the Hindoo mother that it is 
rather her duty to educate her female infant, than 
throw it into the Ganges. It would teach Paul that 
the suppression of heresy is right, but that it must be 
done in the spirit of charity, and with a bloodless bat- 
tle, — with the sword of the Spirit, rather than the 
sword of Damascus dripping with innocent blood. 
It would doubtless add to their responsibilities, but it 
would add to their intelligence also. Were all men 
fools, there would be no sin. But would that condi- 
tion be a satisfactory gain? The real gain to the 
heathen in possessing the Bible is this — they would 
know how to banish from their lands ignorance, su- 
perstition, and corruption. They would plant in their 
places the principles, or the germs, of the purest free- 
dom and civilization. Yes, this neglected Bible brings 
much, every way, with it of good and of blessing to 
the wandering, suffering race of man. 

Theodore Parker has honestly and well remarked 
that we can ‘trace its path across the world, from the 
day of Pentecost to this day. Asa river springs up 
in the heart of a sandy continent, having its father in 
the skies, and its birthplace in distant, unknown moun- 
tains, — as the stream rolls on, enlarging itself, making 
in that arid waste a belt of verdure, wherever it turns 


pir & 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 339 


its way, creating palm groves and fertile plains, where 
the smoke of the cottager curls up at eventide, and 
marble cities send the gleam of their splendor far into 
the sky,— such has been the course of the Bible on 
the earth. . . . There is not a boy on all the hills of 
New England; not a girl born in the filthiest cellar 
which disgraces a capital in Europe, and cries to God 
against the barbarism of modern civilization; not a 
boy nor a girl in all Christendom through, but their 
lot is made better by that great book.” 

Let other lands feel its refreshing and saving influ- 
ences! <A good and desirable, as well as an innocent 
condition of society results not necessarily from a high 
state of civilization, not from thorough scholastic 
training, not from an active conscience even, but from 
acquaintance with and obedience to the written word 
of inspiration. Observe, this statement does not de- 
tract in the least from the former. As a rule of action, 
the conscience remains supreme. Between it and the 
Bible there never has been, and never can be, a pitched 
battle, except in the brain of a lunatic. We must con- 
clude, therefore, that with revelation or without it, all 
men are innocent or guilty. When they pass from 
this world to the next, they pass with absolute inno- 
cence or under absolute guilt, as they have obeyed 
or disobeyed their consciences. Before this tribunal 
we are to stand. This book contains our life or 
death sentence. 

Lhe Normal Operations of Consctence.— It was 
midnight. Arrangements had been made to execute 
an eminent apostle of Christ. He himself had every 
reason to believe. that his last night had come. The 


340 CREDO. 


strong guard, the delay until after the Passover, the 
previous execution of James, the delight it occasioned 
the Jews, and the popularity it gave to Herod, — all 
pointed in the same fatal direction, ‘There were 
scenes of excitement throughout Jerusalem. Herod 
was congratulating himself upon the opportunity of 
securing additional popularity. The Jews were re- 
joicing that one of their ablest opponents was to be 
overthrown. The Christians of the city were gathered 
together, praying and bewailing the fate of their leader. 
Summerville has graphically represented that the upper 
and lower worlds were filled with intensest interest. 
But the doomed man, where was he? ‘Tossing from 
one side of his couch to the other? O, no. Rushing 
about his cell screeching with agony; clinging to the 
bars and looking from the grated windows? OQ, no. 
He was sleeping as soundly as he was wont during 
a tranquil night in his fishing-boat on the Sea of Gal- 
ilee. At the usual hour he had laid off his outer gar- 
ments, loosened his girdle, put off his sandals from 
his feet, composed his mind, and was awaiting God’s 
pleasure. It was not stolid indifference, but divine 
composure ; a representation in statuary of the prayer, 
“‘ Thy will be done.” It was not a fitful sleep, but 
the sound repose of childhood. The bright light did 
not wake him, nor the presence of the angel. Not 
until the strange visitant touched his side, nay, smote 
upon it, did he awake to consciousness. Must not 
such presence of mind, such composure, have had 
the most substantial basis in the universe? It had. 
The Holy Ghost, through the conscience, always 
speaks peace into the hearts of God’s children, when 


M as Tet oO 
' — 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 341 


he bids them go, and do, and suffer. He it is who is 
with them, not as a sentiment, but as a fact. There 
ought to return to men that earnest religious spirit of 
the Hebrew scripture which saw the work of the 
Lord God in the lily, which felt the Spirit’s presence 
directly in the heart, and heard his voice distinctly 
in the conscience. With such a coz-science we need 
not be surprised that when men are naked they are 
clothed, that when they possess nothing they possess 
all things. It is not zerve that is bravest, but man 
and God made friends, and dwelling together in har- 
mony. If a man has, in this strange compartment 
of the soul, a happy social tircle, no matter how the 
storm howls without. Such men become heroes. 
The voice of the loudest slander is drowned. The 
dove lays at their feet the olive leaf. The peace of 
heaven descends upon them though seated amid the 
ruins and desolations of death. 

But this picture has its reverse. Herod, the mur- 
derer of John the Baptist, was distinguished as the 
founder of the city of Tiberius, and as the temporal 
sovereign of our Saviour. He was a conqueror and 
a statesman. He was surrounded by all the wealth 
and splendor of an Oriental court. He was a Sad- 
ducee. In theory he rejected the doctrine of the res- 
urrection, and regarded the future life as visionary. 
Invested with such circumstances, and possessing such 
faith, what could disturb him? The protection of his 
court, the blandishments of his queen, the annihilation 
of the dead, — what more could be asked? How se- 
curely such a man must rest at night! How com- 
placently walk the streets, and rule his kingdom! 


342 CREDO. 


But Herod did not. Look at him! The name of an 
obscure person sends terror into his heart at every 
step. He forsakes his court and flees to the company 
of his servants. He discloses to them his apprehen- 
sions. How unkingly his conduct! When he heard 
of the fame of Jesus, these are the words which escape 
from his pallid lips: ‘* This is John the Baptist; he is 
risen from the dead.” He trembles like a scourged 
slave. If he enters a darkened room, he is sure to 
meet the mangled corpse of John the Baptist. If he 
starts from his sleep at night, it is because he hears a 
dying groan echoed from the gloomy cell of John the 
Baptist. The rustling of a leaf is his breath; a foot- 
fall is his approach. Every floating rumor is asso-~> 
ciated with the hideous phantom of the mutilated 
dead man. Every look means mischief. Every cloak 
conceals a dagger, trembling to leap into his heart. 
The very atmosphere is loaded with poison. His 
realm is in rebellion, and his palace crowded with 
murderers. What! is Herod insane? O, no, not 
insane ; he is laboring under a fit of superstition. We 
object. Why not call things by their right names? 
There is something more at work in his soul than su- 
perstitions or sentiments. What is it then? Pardon 
a delay of the answer for a moment. An English 
king is represented by one who knew the power of 
an enraged conscience as exclaiming, — 


‘*O, coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! 
Cold, fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. 
Is there a murderer here?... 

Then fly. What from? Myself? 
My conscience has a thousand tongues... 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 343 


(They) Throng to the bar, crying all, Guilty! Guilty! 
... Shadows to-night 

Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard 

Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers.” * 


Do we condemn the representation as overwrought? 
Was that king insane, or superstitious, merely? When 
Booth, the assassinator of President Lincoln, was ly- 
ing in the agony of death, lifting his trembling hands, 
and fixing his glassy eyes upon them, he exclaimed, 
‘¢ Blood! blood!” Yes, the innocent blood of a be- 
loved and murdered president was upon them. He 
had washed them, and they were white as marble; 


but to him they were not clean; they were stained 
blood-red. 


‘¢ What hands are here! Ha! they pluck out mine eyes. 
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand? No! this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnardine, 
Making the green — one red.” 


Was J. Wilkes Booth merely insane or superstitious? 
No! It was the Holy Ghost saying to him, as he said 
to Cain, ** What hast thou done? The voice of thy 
brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” 

The Future Peace or Misery of the Human Soul 
intimately connected with Conscience. — It is reason- 
able to conclude that the divine administration will 
proceed upon the same general principles in the future 
as in the present. ‘The unperfected here will be com- 


* Richard III. 


344 CREDO. 


pleted hereafter. Consummation and incompleteness 
are the opposite representations of mortality and im- 
mortality. If, then, the conscience is that faculty 
through which the Spirit Divine discloses to man what 
is the judgment of Heaven respecting his course of 
life, our future happiness or misery must necessarily 
be involved in its untrammelled and perfected decis- 
ions. There is no escape from these positions. The 
future destruction of conscience can afford no relief. 
God must die with the death of conscience. The 
lapse of time cannot diminish its activity. A death- 
less spirit is in possession of a deathless conscience. 
Deprive the race of the power to discern moral dis- 


tinctions, and the universe is deprived of heaven as 


well as hell. Consider the thought practically. Had 
not Herod slept soundly, many a night after the mur- 
der of John the Baptist, before the public appearance 
of Christ alarmed him? Had the lapse of time re- 
moved his terror? 

Mr. Webster, in the trial of the Knapps, described 
not the extraordinary, but the normal and ordinary 
workings of conscience in all ages, and for all crimes. 
‘Fle had done the murder. No eye has seen him, no 
ear has heard him. The secret is his own, and it is 
safe. Ah, gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. 
Such a secret can be safe nowhere. The whole crea- 
tion of God has neither nook nor corner where the 
guilty can bestow it and say it is safe. . . . True, it 
is, that, generally speaking, ‘ murder will out.’ Every 
murderer, like the first one, feels that every man’s 
hand is against him. The guilty soul cannot keep 
its own secret. He feels it beating at his heart, rising 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 345 


to his throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks 
the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, 
and almost hears its workings in the very silence of 
his thoughts. It must be confessed. It will be con- 
fessed. There is no refuge from confession but sui- 
cide, and suicide is confession.” 

Mr. Webster did not commit that murder; yet he 
knew something of the human heart and the power 
of a guilty conscience. 

‘¢ With us,” continued Mr. Webster, ‘‘ these convic- 
tions are with us in this life, will be with us at its close, 
and in that scene of inconceivable solemnity which lies 
yet farther onward, we shall still find ourselves sur- 
rounded by the consciousness of duty, to pain us 
wherever it has been violated, and to console us so far 
as God may have given us grace to perform it.” 

What is there in the nature of time or eternity 
which can lessen the overwhelming force of moral 
convictions? They are a constituted part of the uni- 
verse. This law, which is not one at Rome and 
another at Athens, is also not one on earth and 
another in heaven, but one universal and unalterable. 
There is no evasion of it. Why do not unbelievers 
defend the invariableness of this law, as they do that 
of the laws of nature when we speak of miracles? 
There are religious teachers who claim, not that 
God is a good, but that he is a ‘‘ goodish” sort of 
being ; that he is inclined to wink at all kinds of evil, 
or call it right. They tell us that the sinner is as 
much in God’s service, and’ meets his approval as 
surely, as the most devoted Christian; that his death- 
bed will be as soft and his reward as sure. But what 


« 


346 CREDO. 


will these men do with the nature and operations of 
conscience? If our senses affirm that God is good; 
if the smiling field and fragrant rose breathe his love ; 
if the gifts of his mercy declare his fatherhood, do 
not the lashings of an enraged conscience, in the hour 
of death, demonstrate as unquestionably his severity 
and justice? 

Whatever be our theories of the nature of con- 
science, no one can deny the facts of its operations. 
The man who tries to do right is approved. There is 
no deviation from this law; it is eternal and universal. 
The man who does not try to do as he feels he ought, 
is condemned ; this law, also, is eternal and universal. 
If God is immutable, there is no zatzral counter-law, 
in heaven or out of it, which can change these condi- 
tions. ‘The closer a man draws to the future world, 
the greater is the joy or the anguish of his soul. Were 
not men stupefied with drugs, or weakened by disease, 
every death-bed would be terrible or glorious. Let 
those who scoff at future punishment first be able to 
extract this sting of conscience from the heart of guilt. 
Unless its power be removed, annihilation or future 
and endless anguish is inevitable. Group these state- 
ments, and associate with them existing facts. 

It is one of the most inevitable laws of our being, 
that when men are most depressed in consequence of 
guilt, and are grappling with death, the latent ener- 
gy of this tremendous faculty is quickened. Dur- 
ing the very hour when, of all others in a man’s life, 
his condition calls most loudly for compassion, then 
his conscience returns from its wanderings with aug- 
mented pungency. In the hour of physical dissolu- 


: % 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 347 


tion, the Infinite Spirit and the soul meet together in 


the conscience more closely than ever before. They 
see together, know together, and have an understand- 
ing together, more perfectly than ever before. No 
anguish is mitigated. The embankments which Satan, 
the world, and the human will have thrown up be- 
tween the soul and the clear sky are broken down. In 
that hour God takes the helm and steers the agitated 
bark into an unknown port, through frightful and tur- 
bulent waters, growing constantly more dark and fear- 
ful. He gives such an expression of his displeasure 
to the guilty man as to make him screech for very 
anguish. Such men feel that death, nay, that a thou- 
sand deaths, would: be more desirable than their pres- 
ent agonizing condition, if continued. 

Where, then, in the name of reason, is there any 
future escape for the guilty soul? O, but men are 
not guilty. Men are guilty. They know it. They 
ever and anon feel the deep and dark malignity of sin 
pressing upon them. Every sinner feels that he must 
bear the whole weight of his own guilt. So far as 
any natural law is concerned, his scarlet sins must 
remain scarlet, his crimson sins crimson. There is 
no radiance to light his lonely pathway. But is there 
not aremedy? Not in nature, or the natural. But is 
there none elsewhere? Yes. God pity the race if 
there were not. Man can look conscience out of 
countenance. Its terrible power may become harm- 
less, unmanned, and unarmed. Man’s crimson sins 
may become white as snow. Not by a slow process 
of social development, but sometimes instantly. The 
experiences of eighteen hundred years prove it. But 


348 | CREDO. 


how? Must not sin always rebuke the sinner? Yes. 
Must not the Law-giving Father always hate sin with 
perfect hatred? Yes. Can the man who has commit- 
ted sin escape the frightful operations of conscience, 
here or hereafter? No. Where, then, is heaven? In 
what consists salvation? Where is pardon? There are 
laws which pass beyond the range of the natural. They 
are supernatural. The natural and supernatural do 
not clash. One is above the other. The Father makes 
salvation possible, by giving us the opportunity of 
becoming in Christ Jesus new creatures — other men 
than what we are. That old man who was under the 
law remains there, the eternal object of rebuke; he — 
is excluded ; agony and remorse unite in casting him 
into outer darkness. But this new man is something 
and somebody else.* He is Christ’s brother. At 
his approach, the broad gates above swing open; 
shouts of welcome on every hand are heard. The 
crown is placed on his brow; the spotless robe covers 
him. The man who enters heaven is faultless. Con- 
science cannot harm a faultless man. What more 
can be asked? 

‘* Love, sad and strong, appeared, asking of earth, 
Why weepest thou?” 


* Noyes. 


“But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life- 
time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil 
things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” 
Luke xvi. 25. 


“* Still o’er these scenes my memory wakes, 
And fondly broods with miser care; 
Time but the impression deeper makes, 


And streams their channels deeper wear.” 
Burns. 


‘And slight withal may be the things which bring 
Back on the heart the weight which it would fling 
Aside forever; it may be a wound, 
A tone of, music, summer’s eve, or spring, 
A flower, the wind, the ocean, which shall wound, 
Striking th’ electric chain wherewith we're darkly bound. 
And how, and why, we know not, nor can trace 
Home to its cloud this lightning of the mind, 
But feel the shock renewed, nor can efface 
The blight and blackening which it leaves behind.” 


Byron. 


(350) 


IV. 


THE NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
MEMORY. 


7] ees vital point in the parable of ‘The Rich 
Man and Lazarus” involves the future opera- 
tion of one of the most astonishing faculties of the 
human soul. This faculty, and its relation to the 
future life, especially in case of the finally impenitent, 
furnish us with a wonderful subject for discussion. 
The Nature of Memory.— The faculty called mem- 
ory has interested speculative minds in all ages. As 
would be expected, it has led to many and curious 
speculations respecting its nature and operations. The 
more recent scientific deductions are, that memory is 
not so much a special faculty of the mind, as the action 
and result of the ‘self-energy of the soul.”* This 
soul-power, while in the body, displays itself through 
the organs of the body. It sees through the eye, hears 
through the ear, feels through the hand, and remem- 
bers through the brain. Let the soul escape from 
the body, and it would not need the eye to see, the 


* Hamilton. 
(351) 


352 CREDO. 


ear to hear, the hand to feel, or the brain to remem- 
ber. These activities of the soul, by the means of 
intuitions, would then accomplish their work, without 
the intervention of organs. No natural organ can 
assist the soul in its operations. It is, at most, only 
an outlet indicating barriers elsewhere. The soul, 
freed from the body, would be like the city of God, 
whose gates ‘shall not be shut at all by day; for 
there shall be no night there.” Keeping this thought 
in mind, we are prepared for a closer analysis of the 
faculty under consideration. In order not to burden 
our minds with numerous definitions, we employ but™ 
two terms; namely, retention, by which is meant that 
power of the soul through which it retains the knowl- 
edge which it has acquired, and mental reproduction, 
by which is meant that power of the soul through 
which it recalls, at a given moment, as in recollection 
or reminiscence, the knowledge it has in possession. 
It is one of the most fully established principles of 
psychology, and one which is attested by an experi- 
ence almost universal, that we live and move amid 
all our past experiences. Our knowledge, active or 
passive, immediate or distant, the knowledge of every 
item that has been seen or thought, felt or done, by 
the soul, is like the Deity, ever present with it, though, 
like the Deity, it is not always recognized. It is. not 
only treasured up by the soul, but has become a part 
of it. Hence one person has as good retentive power 
as another. Retention is a constitutional part of the 
soul, and depends for its full power simply upon the 
soul’s existence. In this respect all men are alike. 

On the other hand, there is, perhaps, no mental 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 353 


operation in which such extreme differences appear as 
in the reproductive faculty. Its power is largely acci- 
dental, and dependent upon the cultivation, health, 
and natural play of the faculties. There are some 
persons who possess this power almost miraculously. 
Themistocles, the Athenian statesman, could call the 
names of the twenty thousand citizens of Athens. 
Hortensius, next to Cicero the greatest orator of 
Rome, after sitting a whole day at a public sale, 
enumerated correctly, from memory, the multitude 
of articles sold, their prices, and the names of the 
purchasers. Seneca, the rhetorician, could repeat 
two thousand names read to him in the order in which 
they had been spoken. In 1581, a Corsican youth 
repeated accurately thirty-six thousand words after 
once hearing them. It is said of Grotius and Pascal, 
that they could recall, at will, all they had ever 
thought or read. Ben Jonson tells us that he could 
repeat all he had ever written, and whole books that 
he had reviewed. Macaulay in a short time com- 
mitted to memory and repeated the whole of Paradise 
Lost. It is said of Humboldt that he was never 
known to forget anything. Some years ago, a trav- 
eller, who had then recently returned from Jerusa- 
lem, discovered, in conversation with Humboldt, that 
he was as thoroughly conversant with the streets and 
houses of Jerusalem as he himself was; whereupon 
he asked the aged philosopher how long it had been 
since he visited Jerusalem. He replied, ‘I have 
never been there, but I expected to go sixty years 
since, and prepared myself.” : 

Again, some persons have the power of recalling, 


23 


+ 


354. CREDO. 


with the greatest facility, certain things, and appear 
utterly destitute of it in other respects. One can re- 
call events easily ; another, faces; one narnes, another 
dates. In a single family this diversity may often be 
discovered. In the narration of a story, there will be 
an appeal to this one for dates, to that one for names, 
to a third for a description of places. In the mouth 
of the two or three witnesses every word is established. 
This has, doubtless, given rise to the suggestive and 
familiar expression, “‘ Let us put our heads together.” 
Again, there are those who, at times, are not able to~ 
recall the most familiar facts. There are many au- 
thentic cases where men have forgotten, for the time, 
their own names and the names of their children. In 
these several instances, the retention, we should say, 
is equally good. The persons differ in their recollec- 
tion only. It is folly to say that the man did not retain 
his own, or his son’s name, though he could not re- 
produce it at a given moment. At this point we may 
also discover the precise difference between what is 
termed a good and a poor memory; the one can re- 
produce his knowledge at will, the other cannot. So 
one man may know as much as another, and yet be 
unable to express anything clearly. There is a fa- 
miliar expression, heard alike from the lips of the 
school-boy attempting in vain to recollect his lesson, 
and from the feeble old man endeavoring to answer 
your question, which embodies the true philosophy 
of memory, — ‘I know, but I cannot think ;” “T have 
it, but I cannot recall it just now.” Old age furnishes 
us with a doyble example, both of an impaired faculty, 
that cannot recall, at times, an event of yesterday, but 


ae 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 355 


which remembers with perfect distinctness scenes that 
transpired in days of earliest childhood. Old age lives 
more in the past than in the present. Who has not 
seen an old man pause suddenly, and lean on his staff, 
with his eyes fixed, or filled with tears, and he motion- 
less as a statue? Who has not seen an aged matron, 
who had outlived her generation, pause, and let the 
work of her fingers drop nervelessly into her lap, as 
if she had forgotten the present while recalling the 
past? Something had suggested other places, other 
times, and other faces — faces they had loved, but could 
see no more on earth. 

The effect of disease upon the mental powers is also 
an overwhelming argument respecting the retentive 
power of the soul. Some of the most unaccountable 
freaks are played upon the memory by disease. In- 
stances are common and various. After certain dis- 
eases a partial loss of memory often takes place. The 
patient appears to have lost his entire previous stock 
of knowledge. Whatever may have been his former 
acquirements, he must now begin anew his alphabet. 
Perhaps he has lost his power to recall words, but re- 
tains that of recollecting things. In some instances 
persons are so aflected that they can recall any noun, 
but not a single verb. What is still more marvellous, 
‘‘and of no very unfrequent occurrence,” says Sir 
William Hamilton, ‘‘ one language, in the case of per- 
sons familiar with several, has been taken neatly out 
of his recollection, without affecting in the least his re- 
membrance of the others.” In all these instances, it 
usually results that after a time, of a sudden the entire 
previous stock of knowledge glides back into the mind. 


356 CREDO. 


The power of reproducing it returns. The knowledge 
was retained all the same and all the while, but for a 
time it was latent. 

On the other hand, there are cases where diseases, 
especially nervous affections, have increased almost 
miraculously this power of mental reproduction. We 
call attention to but one illustration, and to this be- 
cause it is both very remarkable and authentic. It is 
the case cited by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It oc- 
curred in Gottingen, Germany, a year or two before 
his visit to that city, and had not then ceased to bea 
frequent subject of conversation. A young woman of 
four or five and twenty, who could neither read nor 
write, was seized with a nervous fever, during which 
she continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew, in very pompous tones, and with the most 
distinct enunciation. The case attracted the attention 
of a young physician, and by his statement of it many 
eminent physiologists and psychologists visited the 
town, and cross-examined the patient on the spot. 
Sheets full of her ravings (as they are called) were 
taken down, and were found to consist of sentences 
coherent and intelligible, each for itself, but with little 
or no connection with one another. All trick or con- 
spiracy was out of the question. The young woman 
was a harmless and simple creature. No solution of 
the case presented itself. The young physician deter- 
mined, however, to trace her past life, step by step. 
He succeeded in discovering the place where her 
parents had lived, made the acquaintance of a surviv- 
ing uncle, and from him learned that the patient had 
been taken by an old Protestant pastor, at nine years 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 457 


of age, and had remained with him until his death. 
After much search, the young medical philosopher 
discovered a niece of the pastor, who had lived with 
him as housekeeper, and had inherited his effects. 
She well remembered the girl. Anxious inquiries 
were then made concerning the pastor’s habits of 
study, and the solution of the phenomenon was soon 
obtained. It appeared that it had been the pastor’s 
custom for years to walk up and down a passage of 
his house, into which the kitchen door opened, and to 
read to himself, in a loud tone, out of his favorite 
books. In his library was found a collection of Rab- 
binical writings, together with several of the Greek 
and Latin fathers. ‘The physician succeeded in iden- 
tifying so many passages with those taken down at 
the young woman’s bedside, that no doubt could re- 
main concerning the true origin of the impressions 
made upon her mind, and reproduced by the action 
of a nervous disease. How singular, that words and 
sentences, tones and accents, only heard, not under- 
_ stood, and for years forgotten, should have been so 
faithfully kept by the soul! that under the influence 
of a peculiar disease they should be brought forth 
again with, if possible, more than their original fresh- 
ness! This and a multitude of similar cases force us 
to the conclusion that every impression made upon 
the soul, early and late, momentary or protracted, re- 
mains with it in all its original freshness, even though 
the impression, at the time it is made, be as gentle as 
the notes of an olian harp at eventide, though it be 
but the reflex of an idle word, or the return of an idle 
thought, which had been cherished in the heart. It 


358 CREDO. 


would seem, then, that if our power to recall the past 
were as perfect as our retention of it, all men would 
be able to station themselves anywhere, at any time, 
and, like a conjurer with his wand, call about them- 
selves the mighty spirit of their past experience, with 
the vividness of present realities. These would come 
without calling. The wonder is, not that we remem- 
ber, but that we can forget. It is most fortunate, 
however, that it is thus; for no material organism on 
earth could endure the natural and full play of these 
energies of the soul. 

They would destroy the body as an unthrottled loco- 
motive would destroy itself. If our past history, with 
its painful and pleasing details, should always be press- 
ing itself upon us, it would, of itself, in a little time, 
entirely exhaust our physical energy. We should 
break down under it long before one half our three- 
score years had expired. While children, we are left 
to think as children. Other things, like God and 
heaven, are wisely shrouded. Now we see in part, 
but the time comes when that which is in part shall 
be done away. 

The Action of Memory inthe Future Life.— lf we 
admit a future existence, and grant the positions al- 
ready advanced, it follows that the soul, after death, is 
to be brought into perpetual contact with its entire 
earthly history. Judging from our present experience 
and the nature of a spiritual existence, there can be no 
reasonable doubt that the soul will be continually and 
deeply affected by its memories, either for happiness 
or misery. Every one knows how the activities of 
the soul are impeded or clogged by an unhealthy or 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 359 


depressed physical condition. This is especially true 
of the powers of memory. There are times when the 
same person can reproduce the past easily; there are 
other times when he can do so only with great diffi- 
culty. At one time we cannot recall what we desire; 
at other times it comes unbidden. There are mo- 
ments when a name, or a face, not thought of for 
years, will unaccountably spring in upon us out of 
the darkness of the past. On the other hand, we 
sometimes lose our power of recalling what is most 
recent and familiar in our history. We are about to 
introduce two persons whose names are perfectly 
familiar; but just at the wrong instant, with the name 
almost on the lips, it slips from us. We hesitate, 
blush, and stammer; but to no purpose: we are left 
to the mortifying expedient of asking an old friend for 
his name. The difficulty is a physical one. A mo- 
mentary perturbation has thrown an over-quantity of 
blood to the brain. The reproductive faculty will not 
do its work, or, rather, will not allow the soul to work 


through it. 


In the next life such disturbing causes will be re- 
moved. Flesh and blood will not inherit that king- 
dom. The imperfect organisms which at present 
surround us, shut us in, clog us, will not then cramp 
the mighty energies of the soul. The caged eagle, 
impatient for its immortal freedom, darting through 
and above the clouds, will look at the sun. 

The future spiritual state is to be one of intensest 
activity. From the nature of spirit it must be the 
embodiment of activity. An approach to this condi- 
tion is sometimes experienced in this life, as, for in- 


360 CREDO. 


stance, at those times when the energies of the soul, 
from one cause or another, are unusually aroused. 
All are familiar with the effect produced upon the 
mental faculties under such circumstances. There 
are emergencies under which the soul seems to rise 
above the body and into its normal sphere. Then it 
is that all, or nearly all, the past life is seen at a single 
glance, not as something strange and novel, but as old 
and familiar. It becomes a portrait, from which time 


has effaced not a feature. We seem to enter that mys- — 


terious labyrinth, which leads us onward until we come 
in immediate contact with much that was supposed to 
be lost, but which had only strayed. All things re- 
turn at last to each and every man, as the spirit re- 
turns to God after its life’s work is done and the body 
has gone to dust. 

Mr. Webster, in his reply to Hayne, upon the floor 
of Congress, furnishes an illustration. He informs us 
that during the moments of his highest mental inspi- 
ration, on that occasion, everything he had ever seen 
or heard, read or thought, stood before him in perfect 
order. His only effort was leisurely to select from 
this accumulation of facts and thoughts, and give to 
his audience. The experience of Mr. Webster, on that 
occasion, will be universal when the natural gives 
place to the spiritual, and the mortal to the immortal. 

The same phenomena have been experienced by 
various persons in other and peculiar positions in life. 
The testimony of a multitude of persons who have 
been resuscitated from drowning cannot be disregard- 
ed. They tell us that during those moments when 
the approach was nearest to the spiritual state, when 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 361 


the soul was struggling with all its marvellous ener- 
gies to keep its hold upon life, then the entire past 
was distinctly seen. The startling call in that dread 
crisis made all past events stand in awful grandeur 
before the soul. ‘* Each terrified thought of life 
rushed, for the moment, to its ashy window, to be- 
hold itself.” 

Such an experience is not a passing in review, — a 
“ friohtful cavalcade,” thundering through the soul, — 
but the past becomes present. It is more than a remi- 
niscence; it is a present unity, an overwhelming, com- 
prehensive grasp of all experiences. It is co-extensive, 
co-present, and linked forever to the absolute self that 
has produced or received impressions. 

It would be more possible for heaven and earth to 
pass away, than for a single act, a single word, or a 
single thought, to be lost or loosened hereafter from 
that living chain of causes which has gone, or does 
go, daily, to make us what we are, and what we shall 
be. Give the soul an organism which is appropriate 
to it, —the body celestial instead of the body terres- 
trial; the body incorruptible instead of the body cor- 
ruptible; the body immortal instead of the body 
mortal; the body spiritual instead of the body natu- 
ral, — and the combined experience of the entire past 
history of every human soul, like a living reality, 
would start up before it without cloud or shadow, for 
its happiness or its misery. The judgment book of 
God could then be dispensed with. An exact copy 
of each life has been transcribed, and is preserved. 
All things are stereotyped. It may be that this reten- 
tive power of ue. soul is the dread book itself, or rather 


362 CREDO. 


a copy of it, ‘‘in whose mysterious hieroglyphics every 
idle word is recorded.” * 

All the mighty physical displays that are crowded 
into the judgment day by poet and preacher, to in- 
crease its impressiveness, are feeble in comparison 
with the view that simply individualizes the vast as- 
sembly, making each solitary human soul stand, face, 
and be answerable for, its entire past lite. 

The soul’s review of a well-spent or a misspent 
life, through which a glorious destiny is secured, or — 
lost, will produce the most thrilling drama of the 
universe. What sadder or wider contrasts can be 
presented than between a rich and selfish man on 
the one side, pale and speechless, without the wed- 
ding garment, and a poor but faithful man on the 
other, who has come up out of great tribulation, 
having washed his robes and made them white in 
the blood of the Lamb? What transaction will 
more surely meet the approval of heaven than that 
which leaves a man to deck himself in his own gar- 
ment, cut from the web he has been weaving through 
life? Is not the robe we weave, warp and woof, the 
tobe we ought to wear? If there is justice anywhere, 
is not the spiritual path a man travels while in this 
life the path he ought hereafter to follow, step by step, 
straight or deviating, world without end? . 

Lhe Operations of Memory, especially in Case of 
the finally impenitent. — The popular pantheistic 
notions of the nineteenth century are so well armed, 
and aimed so directly against the doctrine of future 


* Coleridge. 


— “<< 


0 «An + peti els. Sele Jolie 
+ ‘ . 


ee ae 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 363 


punishment, that we pause to consider the positions 
advocated in the light of the general subject before 
us. The whole theory of modern pantheism may be 
summed up thus: All men and things are God. The 
man acting right, or wrong, as well as the tree grow- 
ing from the soil, is only God acting through the man, 
or the tree. The man and the tree are alike irrespon- 
sible, and have nothing to answer for here or here- 
after. But if there be anything taught by the faculty 
called memory, regarding it in whatever light we 
may, it is that a man is not a tree; that each man is 
an individual, who stands or falls, lives or dies, and 
answers for himself alone. 

Nothing that enters into human consciousness, or 
comes within the range of human experience, can be 
in more direct antagonism to pantheism than the facts 
and existence of memory. Though the anatomist 
carefully dissects the body, though he traces every 
nerve to its origin, though he cannot find the locality 
of this unchanging and independent part of man, and 
doubts scientifically its existence, yet let him but recall 
a day or an hour of his childhood, and the illusion 
vanishes. Though we do not look like the children 
we were of ten summers, we know that there is some- 
thing within which is unchanged. Whenever a rock, 
a brook, a face, or a voice brings strangely to mind 
another rock, or brook, a face, or voice, and shuts 
down to the groove the flood-gates of life, they leave 
us no longer the men we are, but make us the chil- 
dren we were. Whatever have been the sweeping 
alterations around us, or whatever have been the mod- 
ifications of character within us, our personal identity 


264) 4 CREDO. 


has remained unchanged through all these years. 
The child and man are always self-same. 

It is true there is very much in the habits of mod- 
ern society which has a tendency to make pantheists 
of all men. The corporations in which men labor, 
the copartnerships which absorb the individuals, the 
general proneness to shrink from the use of those 
words, ‘‘I,” and ‘* You,” which impart personality to 
whatever they touch, and the universal demand ‘ not~ 
to be personal,” contribute to this; but still God has 
left his witness in the world that man is an individual 
and responsible agent. This is felt to be the case the 
instant Memory lays her finger upon any spring that 
bolts her windows. 

Can the pantheist have met, anywhere in his dis- 
tant migrations, the full visage of his own soul, and 
have staid with it alone, still, attentive, and not have 
felt that his past history has singled him out from all 
others in the universe? Where can he have been, not 
to have felt this lasting, undivided, startling, awful, 
and adhering personal identity! It is clearly written 
upon every act of memory, as it floats up from the 
past, bearing upon its very forehead the proof of our 
continued identity and responsibility, not through the 
last day or hour of life, but through every moment of 
our conscious activity. The facts of memory preclude 
the possibility of the absorption of the individual into 
the divine nature. Make a combination of the two 
by a miracle, if you choose; but can a miraculous 
combination extinguish the man or the God? Iden- 
tical they never have been; identical they never 
can be. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. . 365 


The time is not far distant when science will recog- 
nize these truths, and when the present pantheistic 
notions of Germany, England, and America will be 
looked upon as the idlest talk, and when the teachings 
of the Bible, in which pantheism has no place, and 
which on every page fastens personality and respon- 
sibility upon every conscious member of the race, 
will be universally recognized as the basis of all the- 
oretical, as it now is of all practical philosophy. 

We return to the main argument. If the many 
transgressions of life, which, at present, lie concealed 
at our doors, should at last appear under the active 
reproductive energy of the soul in perfect clearness, 
would they not load us with misery? In the silence 
of our thoughts, and in the occasional vivid reproduc- 
tion of the past, even in this life, have we not felt 
momentarily the sense of remembered, or even par- 
tially forgotten, guilt rushing over the troubled spirit 
with a sentence which has made us dread the future 
and wish to hide from God? Most men are not guilty 
of flagrant crimes. Judas, Herod, and Nero are the 
exceptions. Yet, if the multitude of deeds and thoughts 
now slumbering, if the duties to God and humanity, 
which have been neglected or carelessly pushed aside. 
should be vividly brought before the best of men under 
the light of God’s countenance, they would be shocked 
by their number, if not by their flagrancy. The re- 
membrance of them would vitiate the perfume of 
every flower, and dim the brightest sky that ever 
smiled upon the earth. The rich man in the parable 
did not think his conduct very sinful while living. 
He looked upon himself as a respectable man, and 


3.66 CREDO. 


was so regarded by others. Our Saviour did not 
speak of him in severe terms. Of what did he accuse 
him? Of any breach. of the law? Did he say he 
was a calumniator, an oppressor of the poor, a perse- 
cutor, or a robber? Nothing like it. This was all 
he said: ‘* There was a certain rich man;” and this 
was his crime; not that he was rich, but that a sufler- 


ing poor man was lying at his gate, and lying unre- 


lieved. The rich man did not abuse him or order him 
away, but most likely allowed him the fragments of 


his sumptuous meal. Yet he was a criminal. Christ . 


so regarded him, for he had not done by the poor man 
as he would be done by. He had not listened to Moses 
and the prophets. His heart refused instruction, and 
his memory clung, with hooks of steel, to the fact that 
a poor beggar had suffered within his reach, and had 
suffered unrelieved. One drama had ended, another 
had begun. Under the remembrance of that unfaith- 
fulness his head throbbed, his tongue burned, and his 
cry for a drop of water was heard far and near. That 
was a small boon to ask. Could his tongue have been 
cooled by so small a gift, it would have been ignoble 
in Abraham not to have furnished it. But such a 
thirst, excited by the memories of the past haunting 
him, could not be cooled by a drop of water, nor by 
all the waters of the frozen seas. Not flagrant crimes, 
not the guilt only which is appalling in the eyes of the 
world, but simple unfaithfulness towards God and his 
claims, towards humanity and its wants, kindles a 
fire which no possible external agency can quench. 
Such a troubled soul could not find repose even upon 
the bosom of God. It could find no pleasure if in- 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 367 


stated amid the regal splendors of the groves of Para- 
dise. The trouble is deep and within. The scorching 
sun is upon the plain, and there is no shelter for such 
a traveller. 

If this be true of a respectable (?) sinner, what of 
the soul stained with acknowledged guilt? Who says 
that such a one has no punishment in store? Will 
the angel who whets not his sword in vain, even in 
this life, be conquered in the next? ‘O, if I could 
forget!” is the wailing cry that has gone up from 
more than one earth-born heart. ‘I will forget! 
I will die, and thus escape my memories!” 


‘* Poor, foolish mortal, thou hadst better live! 
Then thou mayst snatch the respite of a moment; 
In death thou canst not; 
Oblivion is the dream of fools; 
Men sleep in life, in death they wake.” 


“‘Feemember!” that was the word which tore off 
the purple robe of this life, and placed upon the 
shoulders of the rich man a robe of fire. That soli- 
tary word, ‘‘ Remember!” rang the death-knell of 
his latest hope. A misdemeanor had sprung up to 
the sky, had cut the hair, and the suspended sword 
fell—upon his heart. The bitter complaint of Byron 
was his — 


** My solitude is solitude no more, 
But peopled with the Furies. 
I have prayed for madness as a blessing; ’tis denied me. 
I have affronted death, the cold hand 
Of an all-pitiless demon held me back, 
Back by a single hair — which would not break. 


368 CREDO. 


In imagination I plunged deep, 
But like an ebbing wave it dashed me back 
Into the gulf of my unfathomed thought. 
I dwell in my despair, 

And live. And thus I live forever.” 


But there is something more than the ordinary 
operations of memory which will involve the soul in 
the future; something more than the clear, spiritual 
presentation to one’s self of crimes; something more 
than the reproving eye of conscience looking in upon 
our misdeeds; something more than the accusations 
of Satan. It is the publication of all that is past to 
God and the universe which will overwhelm us. 
There are many, who in this world, without appar- 
ent emotion, can bear their own secret thoughts, but 
would hide in shame and confusion if the contents 
of their hearts and their past history should be pub- 
lished upon the house-tops and to the multitude. The 
hand would tremble, the foot falter, the tongue stam- 
mer, and death would bea boon. But published all 
this is to be. We are painting daily our own por- 
traits, to be worn as about the neck, to be hung as 
upon parlor walls, and to remain forever before our 
own and the eyes of the universe. We are putting 
into that picture every deed, word, and thought of 
life. Who does not feel the blood mount his cheek? 
The day of judgment will be a day of universal and 
overwhelming surprise. Are there not those who 
would, sooner than have their children and friends 
know them thus, pray to be banished from their pres- 
ence forever? Tom Moore never blushed at his own 
immoral pages until told that his daughter had been 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 369 


reading them. Those who demand the companion- 
ship of earthly friends in the future, irrespective of 
the character formed, know not what they ask. Final 
separation and endless punishment will not lose a 
single unfortunate victim, even if the redeemed are 
gratified by having near them every earthly friend 
they may desire on the day of the general judgment. 
We now see through a glass darkly, then face to face. 
God shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing. This will make a world of difference 
with our views and demands. © ‘* Whatsoever a man 
sows, that shall he also reap.” Chaff or wheat, calm 
or tempest, wind or whirlwind. The present life 
witnesses the gain or loss of everything. As we are, 
as we make ourselves, as our memories present or 
report us, sO we go into the next life —and thus re- 
main. ‘* He that is filthy, let him he filthy still; he 
that is righteous, let him be righteous still. As the 
tree inclines, let it fall: as it falls, let it lie. The 
picture we paint is the picture we shall have. But 
is there no destroying it? No. Cannot we deface it? 
No. Must the world see it, and examine it, as in the 
sunlight? Yes. What, no escape from all that we 
have said or done in the past? No. ‘*O, wretched 
man that Iam, who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death? I thank God, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ.” How through him? By destroying the pic- 
ture? No. By effacing it? No. How then? Sim- 
ply by painting Him upon the canvas also. Let but 
the most guilty man of earth find Christ, and make 
him a part of his own character and history, and he 
will not tremble that his picture is to be hung out to 


“4 


370 CREDO. 


the universe, though bearing every misdeed. He 
will delight to have his children gaze upon it, for 
about those faults and sins of his life will linger the 
thrilling radiance of a manly and heroic struggle, 
which is bathed in the love of Christ. It will show 
that he has burst the fetters of sin, and has been 
made an obedient child of heaven. Such an adorn- 
ing about the blackest picture of sinful humanity 
will give it a welcome anywhere and everywhere in 
the universe. Angels will be enraptured before it, 
and Christ: will delight to own it. 

In effect, it will be as if God had gently borne the 
soul above the bitter remembrance of the past; and 
thus his word represents it. In effect, it will be as ‘if 
the purple robe of fire had been washed of every spot 
and made white in the blood of the Lamb; and thus 
his word represents it. This is the redemption of the 
soul through Christ. Without Christ there is a great 
gulf between the soul and heaven; it is impassable. 
Seize his’ hand and cross the gulf. 


“Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” Zfosea iv. 17. 


“ Therefore I Say unto you, All manner of sin and of blas- 
phemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against 
the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. ae 

‘“‘ And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, 
it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 


neither in the world to come.” Matthew xii. Sire: 


‘For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, 
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers 
of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and 
the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to re- 
new them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to them- 
selves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” 
flebrews vi. 4-6. 


‘* But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and 
murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, 
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth 
with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Reve- 


lation xxi. 8. 


‘One sinless with infernals might do well; 
But sin would make of heaven a very hell. 
Look to thyself then, keep it out of door, 


Lest it get in and never leave thee more.” 
BUNYAN. 


(372) 


es 


V. 


THE THRALDOM OF CHARACTER. 


HE Scriptures convey the impression that there 

are some sins for which there is no pardon, and 

some sinners for whom there is no reprieve. Such 
fatal conditions justify patient investigations. 

The Scriptural Statements respecting the Thral- 
dom of Character. — We avail ourselves of the light 
which is reflected upon the subject of an unpardona- 
ble sin, from the circumstances attending its original 
announcement by our Saviour. Accompanied by his 
disciples, he had made a circuit through Galilee, and 
had just returned to Capernaum. MHere the people 
brought unto him, among others, a most unfortunate 
case of disease — that of one possessed of a devil, 
also dumb and blind. In presence of the rulers and 
the multitude, Christ healed him, “ insomuch that the 
blind and dumb both spake and saw; and all the 
people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of 
David” — the Christ that was to come? ‘* But,” con- 
tinues the narrative, ** when the Pharisees heard it, 
they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by 


Beelzebub, the prince of devils.” It was this sen- 
(373) 


374. CREDO. 


tence, together with the spirit that prompted it, which 
called from the lips of Christ the announcement of the 
possibility of committing an unpardonable sin. 

It is reasonable to infer either that these Pharisees 
had already committed it, or that they were in extreme 
danger of its commission. The conduct they mani- 
fested on the occasion in question should be our expo- 
sition of the subject, should receive our patient and 
honest investigation, and should remain to the world 
a solemn and perpetual warning. 

The healing of diseases by divine help was not a 
new thing in the Jewish nation. Some of the old 
prophets, in God’s name (never in their own), had 
wrought miracles of cure, and had dispossessed the 
afflicted demoniac. But the ability to exercise such 
remarkable power had ever been regarded as pecu- 
liarly the mark of God’s Spirit and presence. It was 
an endowment which had always been looked upon as 
wholly opposed to satanic influence, and as subversive 
of the kingdom of the prince of darkness. Had any 
other personage, on the day in question, wrought that 
stupendous cure, these very Pharisees would have 
looked upon the deed, not as giving evidence that the 
agent was in league with Satan, but that he possessed 
unmistakably the gift of divine authority. Mark the 
course of events. When the deed was wrought by 
our Saviour, — whose progress among his country- 
men the rulers and Pharisees had determined to ar- 
rest, and to arrest because they did not like him, or 
the way in which he came, — when the excited and 
honest mass of the people inquired if the person doing 
such a deed must not be the predicted Son of David — 


= a ae 


a 


Sagat + 


ae 


oA al ed x 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 375 


the Son of God, then the Pharisees exclaimed, in lan- 
guage of supreme contempt, rejecting all their past 
admissions, though compelled to submit to the dem- 
onstration of power in the miracle wrought, ‘* This 
fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the 
prince of devils.” 

We may note, then, without difficulty, that the gen- 
eral characteristic of the sin of which these rulers were 
guilty, and the one for which we have every reason to 
believe there is no pardon, is not a sin, or a course of 
sinning, committed ignorantly, but knowingly. It is 
not a careless, but a wilful and presumptuous rejec- 
tion of that which is good and true. These Pharisees 
were not ignorant men; they were not the men to be 
led away by superstition, or to be blinded by mere 
fanaticism. ‘They were, on the contrary, the most 
polished and educated classes of Judea. They knew 
what they were doing. They had in mind a definite 
purpose, for which they worked day and night, to 
which they bent every energy and turned every event. 
They had seen the miracles of Christ, they had heard 


his preaching, they had witnessed nothing but purity 


in his life, they had every reason to believe in him; 
and yet, because they did not like him, or his teach- 
ings, and because they loved their evil deeds, against 
which he spoke, they charged him with every crime 
imaginable. They scandalized his familiarity with the 
poor and sinful; they called him a wine-bibber, a glut- 
ton, a Sabbath-breaker, a conspirator against Cesar, 
and affirmed, in the present instance, that he was a co- 
worker on earth with the devil. 

The sin of these men had not been committed in a 


376 CREDO. 


moment. It was not a sin against the humble person- 
age who came from Nazareth; but their sin was the 
persistent rejection of love, proof, and remonstrance. 
They had rejected Christ step by step, — in his deeds 
of charity, in his life of purity, by violence and-de- 
ceit, — until they had reached a settled determination,» 
against the most solemn convictions of truth, to destroy 
him at all hazards. We submit to any one if there is 
not something fearful, nay, frightful, in such a cool and 
deliberate banishment of the light. 

A paraphrase of the text, written fifteen hundred 
years ago by Chrysostom, will, perhaps, illustrate more 
fully the same thought. Putting the language into the 
lips of Christ, he represents him as speaking to the 
rulers thus: ‘* You call me a deceiver and an enemy 
of God. I forgive this reproach, for you have stum- 
bled at my flesh, with which you see me clothed. You 
do not know who I am; this I forgive. But can you 
be ignorant of the fact that the casting out of devils is 
the work of the Holy Ghost?” At this point our 
Saviour fixed their guilt. And from this point his 
enemies took their final departure. After the day the 
Pharisees falsely charged Christ with casting out devils 
by Beelzebub, he never invited them into his kingdom, 
or even pointed them to the way of life. A remarka- 
ble change took place in the method, as well as in the 
substance, of his teachings. Previously, his style had 
been plain and simple; for example, the sermons on 
the Mount and at Nazareth. Up to the date in ques- 
tion, never a parable, or an intentionally obscure Say- 
ing, had fallen from his lips; but “ from henceforth,” 
Says the evangelist, “without a parable spake he not 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 377 


unto them.” The disciples, at the announcement of 
his first parable, were naturally surprised, and imme- 
diately inquired, ‘* Why speakest thou unto them in 
parables?” ‘ Therefore,” said our Saviour, ‘‘ speak 
I to them in parables, because they seeing, see not, and 
hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.” 

Mark states the case still more forcibly, thus: ‘* But 
unto them that are without, all these things are done 
in parables; that seeing, they may see and not per- 
ceive, and hearing, they may hear and not understand, 
lest at any time they should be converted, and their 
sins should be forgiven them.” The meaning is, that 
these men had hardened their hearts so that they could 
not understand. They had closed their ears, and our 
Saviour closed his lips. God’s Spirit was withdrawn. 
The door was locked and bolted. They were aban- 
doned and left forever outside the gates of the city. 

We thus discover that the design of some of our 
Lord’s parables was to make the truth dark and in- 
comprehensible to the spiritually blind. But when he 
was with the disciples and the honest people, he zz¢er- 
preted to them the parables that he only announced 
before the wilfully blinded rulers. ‘And when they 
were alone,” writes Mark, ‘“‘he expounded all things 
to his disciples.” The parable explained made the 
truth clearer. 

The rulers in this abandonment were not left abso- 
lutely free to do whatever they desired; that would 
not have been safe. But while their volitions and in- 
tentions were perfectly free, their outward acts were 
controlled and overruled, as by fate. They desired to 
kill Christ, and tried to do so before his time, but 


378 CREDO. 


were prevented. They had committed the sin all the 
same. Sin is not in the outward act, but in the heart. 
To hate a brother with a murderous intention zs mur- 
der. The lustful glance of the eye with an intention 
or desire cherished zs crime. ay 

If the rulers had not been abandoned in this re-_ 
stricted sense, if their hearts had not been hardened 
into rock, would they have taken the course they did, 
and have rejected the wonderful miracles which Christ 
wrought in their presence? “Would not his mildness 
or his warnings, his eye of compassion or his solemn 
denunciations, his unwearied forbearance or some- 
thing he had done or said in the past, have softened 
their sullen hearts, or checked their persistent malig- 
nity? Unless their hearts had been closed, and unless 
God had taken his final departure, would they have 
continued to send officers to arrest our Saviour, when 
the first had returned, saying, ‘* Never man spake like 
this man”? Would they have instigated Pilate to a 
capital sentence against him, when he could find “ no 
fault at allin the man”? Would they have remained 
unmoved at those startling appearances which drew 
from the centurion, and the multitude with him, the 
exclamation, “Truly this was the Son of God”? 
Would they have closed the awful drama by fabricat- 
ing such extravagant and unnatural falsehoods to 
cover up the facts of his resurrection? 

Look at these men. They yielded not, they saw 
not, they heard not, but persisted in their rebellion 
even unto death. There was no pause, no misgiving, 
no forgiveness. But what! Did not Christ pray at the 
last that these men might be forgiven? No. “father, 


———————eeeeeeee 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 379 


Sorgive them, for they know not what they do,” was 
not said of the Pharisees and rulers. Lost men, they 
knew what they were doing —that they were doing 
wrong. But the multztude, deceived, instigated, and 
led on by the rulers, did it ignorantly. It was malice, 
not ignorance, that prompted the rulers to say, ‘* This 


is done by Beelzebub:” it was ignorance and blind- 


ness, not malice, that led the populace to follow the 
rulers, crying, ‘‘Crucify him!” And because these 
did it ignorantly, like Paul, they were forgiven. The 
prayer of Christ in their behalf was heard, and 
prevailed. The common people saw their mistake, 
repented, and left the city, to the number of forty 
thousand, after the siege under Titus had commenced : 
for these people Christ had prayed. But the priests, 
and rulers, and unrepentant Jews remained. And 
there ended the manifestation of God’s kingdom to the 
Jewish state. The fatal line had been passed; beyond 
it was the death-struggle between Jew and Gentile, 
with the Jew conquered. The end of the old world 
was followed by the beginning of the new. It was 
begun amid the far-spreading light of burning Jerusa- 
lem, under whose trembling and falling walls were 
buried alike the hopes and lives of the Spirit-aban- 
doned enemies of the cross. This was and is to be 
their eternal condemnation — that light had come into 
the world, and they had wilfully and presumptuously 
chosen darkness in its stead. The reason is signifi- 
cant — *‘ decause their deeds were evil.” 

In view of these facts, are we not justified in saying 
that the spirit they displayed, wherever found, in 
Judea or elsewhere, is the spirit that bears in its 


380 CREDO. 


bosom the sin for which there is no pardon on earth 
or in heaven? If this statement needs clearer expla- 
nation, or broader application, it may be deduced from 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, sixth chapter: ‘ For it is 
impossible,” says the inspired writer, ‘‘ for those who ~ 
were once enlightened, azd have tasted of the heav- 
enly gift, ad were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
and have tasted the good word of God, azd the pow- 
ers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to 
renew them again unto repentance; seeing they cru- 
cify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him 
to an open shame.” There is a regular gradation, you 
will notice, in this entire passage. Those whom the 
apostle here describes had been instructed in the doc- 
trines of Christianity ; they had enjoyed the blessings 
which the new religion afforded; various gifts had 
been bestowed upon them by the Spirit; they had 
cherished the hopes which the gospel inspires; they 
had been in possession of the fullest evidence, internal 
and external, of the truth and divinity of Christianity. 
** Now, if any of this class,” continues the apostle, 
‘*‘ shall apostatize, it is impossible” — ** adunaton” — 
not, very difficult, — Paul never uses the word in that 
sense,— but it is absolutely ‘impossible to renew 
them.” Note the reason: ‘seeing they crucify the 
Son of God afresh.” These apostates would have 
done precisely what the rulers and Pharisees did, if the 
opportunity had presented itself; and were equally 
guilty. The principle involved is precisely the same 
as in the former instance. The Scriptures throughout - 
are harmonious respecting this crime, and as explicit 
as its nature will allow. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 381 


The Thraldom of Character viewed psychologi- 
cally. — A wilful suppression of evidence, and a rejec- 
tion of known truth, signalize it. There is formed a 
resolution to escape from light into darkness. It is 
not a careless, heedless, or thoughtless backsliding ; not 
such a transgression as that of David, whose ungovy- 
erned passions hurled him suddenly into crime, but 
who was brought to his knees by a single word from 
the prophet; it is not such a trausgression as that of 
Peter, whose fear and impulsiveness drove him blindly 
on to the denial, but whose heart was well nigh 
broken by a single look from the eye of his Master: 
this extempore kind of sinning is not the falling away 
that is meant, but sin persisted in when known to be 
sin, and when felt to be displeasing to Heaven. It is 
a surrender of the soul to the enemy, with full knowl- 
edge of the truth of the Christian religion; it is a 
trampling under foot of the rational convictions of the 
soul; it is taking upon the lips, or cherishing in the 
heart, those anathemas against Christ which his ene- 
mies required of apostates; it is a mortal man in 
terrible encounter with immortal truth, and overcome 
by it; it is another crucifixion of Christ. The man 
committing this sin has, in the process of his sinning, 
formed a character completed at a given point, so 
fixed, so fatal, that he feels he cannot we// to serve 
God, or resist evil. He has gone so far that he not 
only will not, but to all intents and purposes he 
cannot, be pardoned or blessed. The doctrine of per- 
severance is philosophical. An aged saint’s perse- 
verance in a path of virtue, and an aged sinner’s 
perseverance in rebellion, are morally certain. 


382 | CREDO. 


Is it said that this statement destroys the Fatherhood 
of God, and makes of him a monster of cruelty? But 
is it not true that this principle involves no new dis- 
covery, and is it not applicable to every department 
of divine law? Are there not certain physical shocks ° 
which so affect the nervous system that a recovery is 
impossible? May not a man do such violence to his 
moral susceptibilities that he no longer feels the force 
of moral distinctions? If God has made such laws, is 
he not in consequence a monster? If we decide other- 
wise in these cases, can we not as easily preserve the 
divine integrity, though we admit that there is a terri- 
ble sin, or a certain violent state of sinning, which 
leaves a man dead, until death brings him to life 
again? 

Is it not a remarkable fact, in support of this view, 
that those of our fellow-men, who have gone the far- 
thest in their unnatural rebellion, when brought to the 
bed of death, or led to the scaffold, with striking uni- 
formity, point back to some definite deed that stands 
before the soul with astonishing clearness, as the turn- 
ing-point in their lives, after which good influences 
were withdrawn, and no return to the path of virtue 
was attempted? 

This is a principle which meets us everywhere, and 
in a variety of forms. To move is to meet it, and to 
move too far in any direction, physzcally, mentally, 
morally, or spirttually, is to cross a line we cannot 
recross. There is before every man this universal 
Rubicon, from which he may retreat, or over which 
he may pass. There is nothing dark, then, or mysteri- 
ous, hanging over this subject. It is as clear as the 


Cae oS 


eas 


MCE Oe 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 383 


sin is fatal, The consequences are as inevitable as 
human existence. The sin against the Holy Ghost is 
not some ‘ awful, irrevocable deed,” around which a 
disordered fancy has thrown an impending doom, but 
something no more unnatural than the commission of 
any sin is unnatural. 

It is probable that this transgression is so common, 
that all lost men, at or just before death, become blas- 
phemers against the Holy Ghost. The simple event 
of death can be regarded only as a spiritual crisis, in 
the sense that all impenitent men, who have rejected 
the truth for a length of time without blasphemy, are 
left, in the last moments of life, under a final and vivid 
presentation, to which they may yield, thereby escap- 
ing from destruction, ‘‘as by fire,” or which they may 
reject, thereby adding this fatal sin to the rest that 
have been accumulating against them. The blasphe- 
mer against the Holy Ghost, after rejecting God for a 
time, simply retires into the inner apartment, that he 
may hear no longer the hand knocking at the gate- 
way. The door is then closed by another, and allowed 
to rust upon its hinges. The cheering voice saying, 
**Come unto me,” may have been but recently heard 
sounding its friendly warning in his ears with a plain- 
tiveness and earnestness never before experienced, and 
which, prior to this, might have evoked tears from his 
eyes, joy from his heart, and smiles from his face; but 
it now makes no more impression upon him than upon 
a dead man. An awful suicide has been planned and 
committed by such a transgressor. It is as whena 
man retires by himself, and then removes, deliberately, 
every obstacle, and then feels for the pulsations of his 


384. CREDO. 


own heart, and then steadily and coolly fixes the point 
of his own dagger, and then, when every preparation 
has been made, and every energy of his being has 


been called into requisition to accomplish the pur-\ 
pose, without, perhaps, fully realizing what he is 


doing, knowing only that he is taking some awful 
and defiant step, then—he gives the fatal stab, and 
all the help in the universe cannot restore him. 

The Spirit of God, like the breath of life, departs. 
The candlestick is removed out of its place. The 
talent is taken away, and given to another. The soul 
of that man has silently and forever closed itself against 
God and heaven. The gentle voice that once hailed 
and cheered him will be heard no more. 

It is worthy of remark, also, that the approach to 
this condition is often gradual, though none the less 
fatal. Though it is sadder than would be the crash 
of worlds, yet this condition of character may be 
formed more noiselessly than the whisper of a falling 
leaf. The descent in this secret way, from which 
“universal nature recoils,” is not always by a sudden 
plunge; not always at once; not from the full lustre 
of truth into profound darkness, as the flashing, dis- 
appearing light of a falling star, but is more frequently 
like the slow and stealthy approach of a serpent, or a 
concealed enemy. 

Nature even lends her hand to perfect the conceal- 
ment. She covers with carpets and flowers an earth 
full of fire. The thickest and most luxuriant plots are 
oftenest those that conceal the dead. No criminal, it 
is said, is ever led to the scaffold who does not have a 
glimmering hope, even when the death-cap is drawn 


= 


a 


“ 


Re aoe eee ee 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 355 


over the eyes, and the noose adjusted about the neck, 
that the whole transaction is not a reality, but a dream, 
or something like it. He is quite confident there is 
concealed a reprieve for him somewhere in the hands 
of the jailer. It is a wise provision that we are so 
constituted as not to realize the most weighty experi- 
ences of life. They are hidden from us. We may feel 
pain from a slight blow, and be unconscious of the 
one that takes the life — conscious only of the shock. 
We may not, and do not, know the hour of our natural 
death. It is well that we are thus left, and still better 
if we are always ready. It is well that nature has 
provided an opiate for the one who has passed the 
line of probation, and a friendly veil for the eyes of 
those about him. This is a merciful, but withal a 
terrible, condition of uncertainty — merciful, that we 
do not know the hand when we touch it, the face 
when we see it, or the voice when we hear it; else 
we should start back as from one who has committed 


‘a double suicide. 


But let us not be deceived by the deceptive charac- 
ter of the sin, the friendships of nature, or our own 
natural blindness. 


‘¢Let no man trust the first false step 
Of guilt; it hangs upon a precipice, 
Whose steep descent in last perdition ends.” 


The inthralment, then, of a man’s character is com- 
plete with the commission of the unpardonable sin. 
It covszsts in the suicide of the higher spiritual nature. 
It is accomplished by slow degrees, followed by a defi- 
nite rejection of the truth, either in word, deed, or 


25 


386 CREDO. 


thought. It vesu/ts in the withdrawal of the Holy 
Spirit from the heart, and constitutes a crime which 
God does not forgive, neither in this world nor in the 
world to come. | 

Ls the Thraldom of Character possible in the Pres- 
ent Age ?— There is nothing in the nature of this sin 
that terminates so fatally, which would prevent its 
commission by any one, at any time, and anywhere. 
There is no reason why men who walk daily in our 
midst may not be trembling upon the verge of this 
precipice, and there is much in the spirit and conduct 
of men which indicates, in modern society, the pres- 
ence and victims of the second death. 

During an extensive revival in an American college 
some years ago, a company of students met, and, as 
if led on by Satan himself, pierced veins in each other’s 
arms, mingled their blood, and with it signed a formal 
resolve that they would resist forever God’s Spirit and 
the religion of Christ. Their convictions ceased, 
though the /religious interest for a time continued. 
Not one of the number referred to was converted. 
Subsequently, one by one they died, in despair, with 
the gloom of future and eternal ruin hanging over 
them. The crime of these young men was probably 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. They sinned 
knowingly, despised evidences of the truth know- 
ingly. It was malice prepense. They made their 
own record, took great pains to make a sure record, 
and in this they approached the awful point of depart- 
ure. The soul in such an effort is strained, if we may 
be allowed the expression. It is strained until there 
is a break, a dislocation, between it and the God-Spirit 
forever. This is not a solitary illustration. 


\ 
\ 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 387 


If we go among men, talk with them, and examine 
the motives that govern them, we shall find, in some 
cases, that their hands are coolly and deliberately 
raised against God — raised and held. We shall find 
that there are men who, in daylight, z¢ezd never to 
change from their course of sin; men who reject 
Christ, with convictions in his favor; who say that 
the apostles were ‘‘ moved on and instigated by®the 
spirit of the devil,” and who feel that what they are 
saying is not true. We shall find men who assert 
that Christianity is a humbug, and who know better. 
There are men who, like the most brilliant and most 
worthless of foreign infidels, have the heart to con- 
clude their letters with the well-known and horrible 
blasphemy, ‘‘ Crush the wretch!” There are men 
in New England, who cordially responded to the 
following announcement, publicly made at a re/i- 
gious (7) meeting of spiritualists, held only a few miles 
from Boston: ‘*I am not Jesus Christ, nor Paul, but I 
am a damned sight better than either of them.” When 
men can deliberately do and say such things, it looks 
as though blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and 
thraldom of character, are as possible in the nine- 
teenth as they were in the first century. There are 
offences less violent and impious, which, in this con- 
nection, demand our attention. There are men who 
have religious convictions, and are trying to banish 
them. There are men in whose ears the calls of 
mercy are growing yearly less and less audible and di- 
rect, upon whose hearts the arguments of the preacher 
and the entreaties of friends fall like idle whispers. 
There are men who are in the habit of justifying a 


388 CREDO. 


wrong course, that they may continue in it. Some 
there are who do not know on which roll their names 
are written, and who do not much care. There are 
others who do not feel the tender drawing of the 
Divine Spirit, as they were wont in earlier life. The 
disposition they once had to become Christians is 
lost, in part, or altogether. There are still others, 
to “whom the present, past, and future have lost, 
or are losing, their meaning; upon whom the sur- 
rounding providences of the overruling Father leave 
no abiding impression, and to whom they speak noth- 
ing plainly, but in parables, as Christ spoke to the 
rulers. Whoever has but one such experience is in 
danger. He has committed, or is in the way of com- 
mitting, a crime, not in unbelief, not in ignorance, not 
against man, not against the Son of man, not with- 
out clear light, not by a single act, but with deliber- 
ation, and against the Holy Ghost. He is struggling 
upon, or near, remediless disaster. If he falls, can he 
blame any but himself? 

Lhe Thraldom of Character as related to God. — 
It is often asked if it is consistent with the character 
of God to refuse forgiveness to this sin, and, if so, on 
what grounds. All men instinctively recoil from the 
thought that any human being will pass into the next 
world, there to remain forever, under the oppressive 
sense of unrepented and unforgiven guilt. There is 
no Christian heart on earth that would not rejoice in 
the announcement that all men will finally be forgiven 
and saved, if such announcement can be safely made. 
There is no one who does not prefer to think of God 
as a loving and merciful Father, rather than a Judge of 


a ee Sel 


ee ee ee 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 389 


crime and guilt. But should our preferences conceal 
the truth? Must not men be blind and deaf who fail 
to see and acknowledge that the God-Father in reve- 
lation, providence, and nature is not all smiles? There 
is the frowning of a midnight tempest, as well as the 
smiling of a June morning. There are the bursting of 
a mountain, a stream of fire, and a burning sea on the 
very spot where, yesterday, was the blooming of an 
Italian garden. God is love; penitent hearts find him 
thus. God is a consuming fire, and impenitent hearts 
feel him to be such. No one can study his provi- 
dences in the world without discovering the very 
principle embodied in the text — the unyielding jus- 
tice that forgives not, but holds the impenitent and 
self-hardened victim aloof forever. God is immutable, 
whether in the smiling morning or in the midnight 
tempest; whether in the garden blooming or in the 
garden desolate. But he is not so immutable as to 
ake it all the same with him whether men sin or 
are holy; whether they transgress innocently or 
knowingly, carelessly or maliciously. Indifference is 
not immutability. Electricity is the same, but it ap- 
pears quite differently when traversing the electric wire, 
or bearing our message to a friend, and when crashing 
through our dwelling and killing its inmates. Fire is 
the same, but it appears quite differently when warm- 


ing the trembling child of poverty before the hearth, 


and when sweeping away the wealth and dwellings 
of a great city. God is the same; but are we not 
blind, stone blind, like the Pharisees of Jerusalem, 
if we say that he has the same feelings towards the 
penitent child and towards the wilful sinner? He can- 


390 CREDO. 


not look upon wnrepented sin with the least allow- 
ance. God is merciful, but sin is hateful to him. He 
would save the sinner if he could reasonably do so. 
The fxally impenitent sinner destroys himself, and 
puts himself éeyoxd the forgiveness of God. There 
is something which shocks the very foundation of 
God’s government, in this cool, deliberate banishment 
of the light. The Holy Spirit, who is otherwise and 
at other times a personal friend of man, and who 
communicates the divine will and promise to the 
race, is grieved beyond measure by such conduct. 
He resents the towering insult, not ‘* capriciously or 
arbitrarily, but with full and perfect measurement of 
the deed done.” Then, with solemn formality and 
infinite regret, he takes his leave of the sinner. The 
conduct of God towards the finally impenitent has 
been wonderfully considerate and patient. He has 
shown his love and mercy to him in a thousand ways. 
The cheer that comes from his word, speaking for- 
giveness for ‘sin and amnesty for the sinner, is enough, 
one would think, to win any heart. The extensive 
and astonishing plan of pardon which he has furnished, 
the providential care that orders all things for our 
good, his readiness to forgive, and his plenteousness 
of mercy, are written, as upon the clear blue of 
heaven, with starlight and sunlight. Under the in- 
centives and encouragements of such proclamations, 
let honest and penitent hearts rejoice; let the bowed 
head be lifted, and the tearful eye brighten. In the 
very passages before us there is a wonderful expression 
of God’s readiness to forgive. Listen. ‘ All man- 
ner of sin shall be forgiven.” Sins of ignorance, 


"a a ee oe 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 391 


though terrible ; the blind and ignorant transgressions of 
conscientious heathen, though appalling ; their deceits, 
their thefts, and their murders, ‘shall be forgiven.” 
‘¢T obtained mercy,” exclaimed Paul, the blasphemer 
and persecutor, ‘‘ because I did it ignorantly.” Our 
Saviour, sometimes, sets no conditions. They shatl 
be forgiven, we think he means, through repentance 
and the provisions of the atonement. Sins of unbe- 
lief shall be forgiven. Sins of ignorance are usually 
directed against God, his existence, wisdom, or good- 
ness; while sins of unbelief are usually directed 
against Christ, his divinity, his union with the Father, 
and his present official relations. When Christ, there- 
fore, is spoken against because he is not understood, 
it shall be forgiven. ‘* Whosoever speaketh a word 
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him.” 
Not only ‘all sin,” but even élasphemy, shall be for- 
given, provided it does not progress until it becomes 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Blasphemy is 
defamation of what is good and holy, or a disposition 
to despise it. It forms the climax of ordinary trans- 
gression. But even this towering sin shall be forgiven 
unto men. O, how sweeping, and far-reaching, and 
overshadowing are the mercies of God! The soul 
that asks for more than this is not an honest soul. 
The sinner, then, is destroyed in spite of God’s for- 
bearance. No man falls until the Infinite Father 
makes concession after concession to him; until the 
Logos appears to him and dies for him; until after 
the Holy Ghost has often spoken to him, as Christ 
spoke over Jerusalem — “I would,” “Ye would 
not.” No man falls until he has crushed his religious 


392 CREDO. 


sensibilities, voluntarily, in his own hand. No one 
will finally perish whom the Godhead~has not guard- 
ed as the apple of his eye, only not destroying’ his 
freedom. No man has been left alone, but Christ 
has, time and again, offered his presence and assist- 
ance. In the words of the ‘* New Birth,” * ‘ The 
fallen man’s steps have been thronged by pleading 
spirits. The cross of Christ has blocked his wayward 
course more impassably than if it had been a flaming 
sword. Intercessions have been made for him in 
heaven with hands uplifted, in which were the prints 
of nails. His history has been one long struggle 
against obstacles, with a wilful repugnance to holy 
restraints: with an adroit suspense of conscience, that 
he might fraternize with sin, he has sought out, and 
discovered, and selected, and seized upon, and made 
sure of his own way over, and around, and through 
these obstacles to the world of despair. He has done 
it, —he, and not another.” The parable represents 
the lost soul as speechless. Is it a matter of surprise 
that it should be thus? 

Recurs the question —Is it evidence that God is 
not merciful, if he does not save such sinners? The 
worst sinners are they who might be the most suc- 
cessful Christians. They have natural abilities denied 
others. May not God set a dreadful and eternal mark 
of distinction upon a transgressor who is exiled be- 
cause he chooses to be exiled; whose name is on the 
black roll, and there because he himself persists in 
writing it with his own hand and in his own blood; 


* Phelps. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 393 


whose God-like endowments, with all the ‘ unmiti- 
gated and unrelenting forces” of his soul and will, 
have been concentrated in the choice to be and re- 
main sinful? Is not God merciful unless he reverses 
all the principles of our moral character, crushes out 
our free moral agency, and introduces in its place 
absolute necessity or a blind fatality? Can he not 
be allowed to make any distinction between loyal 
and disloyal men? Nay, God’s mercy and the well- 
being of the universe, require that man should be left 
free, but held responsible; free, but free to enslave 
himself when his character has been established and 
found to be dangerous to the interests of society. 
States are in rebellion. There is an appeal to au- 
thority, and then to arms. The states are conquered, 
but certain leading rebels are not. Would not that 
be a puerile humanity, a philanthropy run wild, let 
loose, which bids that government take serpents into 
its bosom? But what is true of a civil government 
is true of God’s, and what is true of its subjects is 
true of his. Jmpenztent rebels, wherever found, are 
outlaws. No policy can be offered, or is safe, which 
does not regard them thus. 

Those who oppose the doctrine of future punish- 
ment, future chains and darkness, are accustomed to 
say they cannot believe that God will take pleasure 
in forever punishing the sinner. They claim that he 
will provide some expedient, either annihilation at 
death, universal salvation, or restoration. But does he 
take pleasure in witnessing the terrible woe and pain 
which sin entails upon its victims in this world? Does 
he take pleasure in seeing the inebriate and the sen- 


394. CREDO. 


sualist irredeemably enslaved to their appetites and 
passions? And yet they are enslaved. In conse- 
quence of these things, men suffer. The world is 
full of misery. Why does He not prevent it? Are 
antecedent probabilities valid in opposition to facts? 
All believe that it will not be any personal gratifi- 
cation for God to withhold forgiveness from the finally 
impenitent, merely for the sake of withholding it. 
That would not be God-like. But may not some 
other motives influence him? We know, from the 
very best authority, that sin is to be an eternal fact 
in the universe of God. As such, must it not have 
its own awful and isolated development, its own awful 
and isolated history?* The majesty of God’s natural 
laws requires that violations of them shall be followed 
by the infliction of penalties. An eye for an eye, a 
tooth for a tooth. Are his moral and spiritual laws 
less important? Would it be safe to admit certain 
characters into a place of which one of the primal 
ideas is security? Does not the peace of heaven de- 
mand that those who are selfish, and have not the 
spirit of Christ, which alone destroys selfishness ; that 
those who are impenitent, unmerciful, and unforgiving 
beyond recovery; that those who choose darkness 
rather than light, because they have continued to 
love evil deeds, until they have learned to love noth- 
ing better, — does not safety require that such men be 
allowed to chain themselves outside the gates of the 
city? Lax administration towards such a class will 
work the ruin of any government. Heaven is no 


* Shedd. 


ELS ee 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 395 


exception. Do not God’s providence and revelation 
justify the conclusion that he is too wise and decisive 
to follow the pusillanimous course of a people who 
fail in a just conception of what treason means? 
Will he not make it odious throughout his domains? 
Will he not put such a stamp upon sin and treason 
that they will be known anywhere? To do it, is it 
not his duty? Will the righteous verdict of the uni- 
verse excuse him for not vindicating his broken laws 
by the enslavement of wilful and hardened traitors? 
Are not the traitors of his government those who de- 
liberately and wilfully reject and resist him? Sin is 
treason. It is of no use to say such traitors do not 
exist ; they do exist. Mix well with the world, and you 
will.see them. God's object in the punishment, the 
selfimposed punishment, of the sinner is not personal 
gratification or vindictiveness, but is resorted to as an 
extreme measure. It is a plan by which to prevent 
another catastrophe in his kingdom. One such is 
enough, full enough. The heart sickens at the thought 
of another. Loyalty throughout his vast empire, 
henceforth, is his grand design. The safety of an 
ever-progressive and ever-increasing kingdom is the 
problem. Extreme measures, which now exist, but 
which were not at command before Satan fell, and 
before sin entered the universe, can effect this. Shall 
God employ them, or not? They are in process of 
execution already : shall he arrest their normal action? 
Shall the event of death reverse all law, and make 
treason glorious? Shall an impenitent Satan be re- 
instated in Paradise? Shall the lights of heaven be 
reintrusted to his bloody and deathly hand? Univer- 


396 CREDO. 


sal and eternal interests hang trembling upon the 
answer. ‘ Yes,” and ‘‘ Farewell, heaven,” must be 
spoken in the same breath. Many earthly govern- 
ments have stood for centuries, which would have 
had an early extinction but for their salutary and 
vigorous enactments against treason. Ostracism or 
loyalty, chains and granite walls or obedience, are 
the right and left ventricles of a nation’s heart. The 
future, if our conclusions be correct, lies between one 
hell and one heaven, or two hells and no heaven. 


oS ee a a ee 
i on teat 


** And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the founda- 
tion of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thine 
hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all 
shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou 
fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the 
same, and thy years shall not fail.” Hebrews i. 10-12. 


‘‘ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days 
scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is 
the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the 
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing 
out of the water and in the water: but the heavens and the 
earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, re- 
served unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of 
ungodly men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief 
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with 
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; 
the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt 
up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what 
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and 
godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day 
of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, 
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter iii. 3-5, ven 
10-13. 


‘‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was 
no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, 
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride 
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of 
heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and 
God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 

(397) 


/ 


~ 


be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” 
Fevelation xxi. 1-4. 


‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe 
also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it 
were not so I would have told you. I goto prepare a place for 
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there 
ye may be also.” Sokn xiv. 1-3. 


‘But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Corinthians 
Ae Ge 

‘* For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle 
were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, 
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is 
from heaven.” 2 Corinthians v. 1, 2. 


‘Far out of sight, while vet the flesh infolds us, 
Lies the fair country where our hearts abide; 
And of its bliss is nought more wondrous told us, 
Than these few words: ‘I shall be satisfied.’ ” 


(398) 


VI. 


THE OLD HEAVENS AND EARTH DIS- 
PLACED BY THE NEW. 


HE entire drift of revelation regards the present 

existence of the human race as temporary and 
disciplinary. The question before us is, whether or 
not, apart from revelation, there is direct or indirect 
evidence sufficient for the establishment of a reason- 
able and intelligent belief respecting the end of the 
present order of things, and the ushering in of a new 
and entirely different order. 

Argument from Biblical, Traditional, and Secu- 
lar Flistory.— After the final preparation of the earth, 
we read that man was formed from the dust of the 
ground. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life, and he became a living soul. It is a fact worthy 
of remark, that the most careful analysis of the human 
body discovers in its formation no chemical ingredient 
of any kind which is not a part of the soil beneath our 
feet. The account of the formation of Eve is brief 
and beautiful. God took a rib from the side of Adam, 


then closed up the wound, and developed from the 
(309) 


400 CREDO. 


bone the woman Eve. No greater difficulty attends 
such a formation than would attend a corresponding 
development from the dust of the earth. It is infinite- 
ly more illustrative of the ordained union of husband 
and wife. It involves a principle which lies at the 
foundation of all modern civilization. ‘ This is now 
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be 
called Woman, because she was taken out of man. 
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, 
and cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” 
(Genii 23; 22°) 

Subsequently the new-formed pair were placed in a 
beautiful spot, which was adapted, every way, to their 
condition and happiness. There is a vast plain in 
Asia, lying between the thirtieth and fiftieth state 
north latitude, and between the ninetieth and one hun- 
dred and tenth degrees east longitude, which now pro- 
duces plants, animals, and man in the highest state 
of perfection. No spot on earth surpasses it in natural 
advantages, and no spot so much deserves to be called 
the Garden of Paradise, or the Pleasant Land. Here, 
in this charming region, the modern Cashmere, graced 
by a perpetual summer, in all probability is to be found 
the cradle of the human race. At least tradition and 
history point in this direction. 

Sacred history informs us that the earliest condition 
of man was not a state of barbarism, but of the high- 
est civilization and refinement. The sacredness of the 
family relations and the worship of God were both 
recognized. The skilful use of language, the discern- 
ment of the nature of different animals, and the gift 


of appropriate names to each as they came before 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 401 


him, show that Adam was not a whit behind the mod- 
ern masters of science — Cuvier and Agassiz. 

It cannot be shown that a single nation or individual 
existed in an uncivilized and savage state on earth, 
prior to the building of the Tower of Babel. All his- 
tory proves that, though from a civilized state nations 
may easily lapse into barbarism, it is impossible for a 
savage nation, without foreign aid, to rise into a state 


of civilization. The inhabitants of New Guinea, of ~ 


the islands of Andaman and New Zealand, — in fact, 
every savage race on the globe, — are existing proofs. 
The monkey theory has no foundation in history or 
fact. . 

For a time after the formation of Adam and Eve all 
was well. The thorn was seen on the rose-bush, and 
was there to warn against danger, but was guarded so 
as to prevent injury. Monuments of death could be 
found in the earth, and seen upon its surface, to warn 
the early pair that Paradise, though in their posses- 
sion, might be lost. But though a ‘‘thousand should 
fall at their side, and ten thousand at their right hand, 
it would not come nigh them.” Heaven, but for the 
fall, would have been reached, not through death, but 
by a chariot of God. 

At length followed the reverse of this enchanting 
picture. There were a temptation and a fall. Hence- 
forth anxiety was written on the brow of man. Dis- 
tress followed the mother of the race. And the 
loosened silver cord, the golden bowl broken, the 
pitcher dashed in fragments at the fountain, the wheel 
that should have drawn endless supplies of immor- 
tality crushed at the cistern, and the teeming fountains 


26 


— 
. ee. § 


402 CREDO. 


of the race flowing on, but emptying all their waters 
into the gulf of death, are the lessons of every hour 
that the early death sentence is not revoked, and that 
the knowledge of good azd evil, which was gotten so 
easily, has cost most dearly. 

During the sixteen hundred years of antediluvian 
history succeeding the fall, we may note the death of 
Abel and the exile of Cain. The descendants of Cain 
developed the various branches of art and science, cul- 
tivated literature and poetry, built their houses, and 
walled their cities, but were guilty also of all those 
gigantic crimes which ever attend a high but unchris- 
tianized state of civilization. The descendants of Seth, 
on the other hand, cultivated astronomy, agriculture, 
and horticulture. They recognized the rights of prop- 
erty and marriage. They exhibited extraordinary 
virtues and piety. Subsequently, however, upon the 
increase of the two races, the sons of Seth — called 
very properly ‘the sons of God” — were attracted by 
the graces ‘and embellishments, the music, the songs, 
and the sparkling wit of the daughters of the enter- 
prising Cainites, and formed with them unholy alli- 
ances. (Gen. vi. 1-5.) This struck the death-knell 
to the further developments of purity and true religion 
among the race of mortals. Subsequently violence 
and crime filled the earth, and not until after God had 
given repeated warnings — not until after he had en- 
treated and expostulated through many years— did 
he sweep the earth of its rebellious inhabitants by the 
deluge of Noah, preserving, to repopulate it, the only 
family which had continued to serve him, and which 
alone could be trusted to hand down the knowledge 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 403 


of the true Jehovah to succeeding races. Of this 
deluge the voice of tradition is full and emphatic. 
Whether it were local or universal respecting the 
earth, the Scriptures do not say; but respecting man, 
they do say that it was universal. The theory of 
Hitchcock, respecting the deluge, so well accords 
with certain facts that we introduce the substance of 
it. The physical character of the country supposed 
to have been inhabited by the antediluvians, after their 
expulsion from Paradise, shows that it would have 
been easily overflowed by the sea, if but small changes 
of level had been introduced. In Western Asia, ex- 
tending even to Russia, there is a territory nearly as 
large as Europe, the most of which is beneath the 
ocean’s level. The Caspian Sea is eighty-four feet 
below the Black, the steppe of Astrachan has an aver- 
age level of thirty feet below the Baltic, and the Dead 
Sea is thirteen hundred and twelve feet below the 
Mediterranean. 

Now, if the low barrier between the Caspian and 
Baltic were depressed, a torrent of water would inevi- 
tably flow in and overwhelm this region. A large 
portion of Western Asia shows evidences of volcanic 
eruptions even in historic times, and of abundant erup- 
tions in the later Tertiary period. Such convulsions, 
and also rapid oscillations, of the earth’s surface are 
commonly accompanied by torrents of rain. Such 
phenomena are not altogether wanting in recent his- 
tory. In 1819, two thousand square miles of the delta 
of the Indus were suddenly depressed. The waters of 
the ocean immediately rolled in, and covered every- 
thing, save the tops of the houses. With a few varia- 


404 CREDO. 


tions of the earth’s surface at the time of the flood 
in these regions, where we know, from scientific. re- 
searches, there have been such changes in compar- 
atively recent times, an extent of more than two 
millions square miles of country would have been 
deluged. The fountains of the great deep would 
have been broken up, drenching rains would have 
fallen, every object within view from the ark would 
have been concealed from sight as effectually as if 
the ark had been sailing upon mid-ocean. Nothing 
having the breath of life, throughout that entire 
region, man or beast, could have survived, save the 
family of Noah and the domesticated animals taken 
with him into the ark. It accords with geological 
observation that a great oscillation in one direction 
is followed by another in the opposite direction. 
Granting this to have been the case, after the forty 
days of depression and storms, the rains would have 
ceased, the waters would have flowed back into the 
seas, the atk and dove would have found resting-places, 
and the representative family of the earth would have 
begun its new journey and history. The evidence is 
entirely satisfactory that the descendants of Noah, in 
the course of a few score of years, passed down into 
and overspread the rich and luxuriant valleys of the 
Tigris —ancient Babylonia. While the story of the 
flood was fresh in mind, they commenced to build a 
tower which should reach to the skies, that they 
might be independent of the interference of God in 
case of another flood. | 
To remove this feeling of independence, and the 
proud conceit of mortals, God, in accordance with his 


4 
9! 
Pe 


eh eS 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 4095 


usual providence, checked their proceedings, and scat- 
tered the people over the earth. We read that ‘the 
whole land was of one lip and of one stock of words,” 
and that God ‘confounded their lip, that they could 
not understand each other’s lip.” * 

Language is a stock of words and the power of ex- 
pressing them. The stock of words was not changed 
by this providential interference; but the organs of 
speech were so affected, that, when the people at- 
tempted to enunciate from the old stock of words, a 
peculiar sound was given, which could not be under- 
stood, save by that part of the people similarly 
affected. 

Probably the three or four great divisions of lan- 
guage then commenced their development — the She- 
mitic, the Indo-Germanic, or European, the Egyptian, 
and the monosyllabic languages, if a separate classifi- 
cation be required for them. 

All philological phenomena can be reconciled with 
this general fact and classification. As would be ex- 
pected, a separation of those who spoke the different 
tongues into distinct communities soon followed, to- 
gether with subdivisions of those families of the origi- 
nal descendants of Noah who had intermarried. The 
body of the Japhetic family overspread Europe. Phe 
Hametic overspread Africa, and the Shemitic passed 
to the south and east of Asia. Since the dispersion, 
secular history notes the rise and fall of the ponderous 
civilizations of Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, Greece, and 
Rome; also the liberty, intelligence, and industry of 
modern times. 


* Hebrew Bible. 


4.06 CREDO. 


The religious history includes the call of Abraham ; 
the singular choice of the children of Israel as the 
peculiar people of God; the development and decay 
of the vast religious systems of Asia, Persia, and 
Egypt; the development of Platonism under the suc- 
cessive labors of the finest minds that ever dawned 
upon Greece, and its subsequent extinction; the birth 
of Jesus of Nazareth, and the triumphs of his gospel ; 
the waxing and waning Crescent on the desert; the 
pope established and trembling on his throne; the 
scholastic Deism of England; the wild infidelity of 
France; the development of Hegelanism under the 
united efforts of the profoundest intellects of Germany, 
and its subsequent desertion; and the more recent, but 
ineffectual attacks of infidelity upon the doctrine and 
views of the evangelical church, — these events bring 
the religious history and controversies of the world to 
our own doors. 

We may observe, also, that the direction of these 
movements has been westward, excepting the counter 
wave that sent some of the inhabitants of Asia across 
to the western shores of America, which has since 
given way before the mighty westerly tides that are 
soon to ingulf the last remains of the old Indian tribes 
of the new world. Here we pause. 

As we glance at this vast field of history, and then 
towards the future, — as we examine these civil and re- 
ligious movements in general or in detail, — can we fail 
of the impression that the whole is entirely meaningless, 
improvident, chaotic, is it not wild as a whirlwind, 
and mad as a storm throughout, unless the journey of 
humanity has been temporary and disciplinary? But 


os Sea 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 407 


what is the race to do next? Is not its onward march 
soon to be checked by the shores of the Pacific, and 
will there follow a rebound from west to east, over the 
world? Impossible! Is it to span the Pacific, strike 
the Asiatic coast, and begin its journey over again, 
whence it commenced? Improbable! Is it to stay 
where it is? Impracticable! Can the race continue 
to multiply as it has been doing in the past, and room 
be found on the earth’s surface for the increasing mil- 
lions? Certainly not. 

Nay, every chapter of geology, every page of his- 
tory, every providence of God, every deep conviction 
of the human soul, points with an index finger inflexi- 
ble as steel, not to a repetition of the old story, but to 
its conclusion, and to the development of what eye 
hath not seen or ear heard. 

Scientific Evidences of the Close of the Existing 
Order of Things. — Had we looked in the direction 
of the constellation of the Northern Crown in May, 
1866, we should have seen a star suddenly burst forth 
with extraordinary brilliancy. Twelve days after this 
event, we should have observed that it had declined 
from the second to the eighth magnitude. But one 
explanation of the phenomenon has been presented. 
There is, perhaps, no question in the minds of scien- 
tific men that this outburst of light was a star sud- 
denly inwrapped in the flames of a burning atmosphere. 
It is probable it was a central sun of some planetary 
system, which, having accomplished its destiny, disap- 
peared. There are many other instances. This is 
noted only because it is so near us in point of time. 
Astronomers tell us of new stars in every direction, 


408 CREDO. 


which appear and then disappear. Astronomical 
charts are dotted with important stars that have been 
lost from the heavens. What is there to prevent a 
similar catastrophe on this earth of ours? No one 
dares say that such an event is impossible, unless he 
would dare say anything. 

On the other hand, will not familiarity with a cer- 
tain class of facts force all to the conclusion that such 
an event is, in every way, probable? There are move- 
ments in progress in the planetary system, which, if 
continued, must inevitably result in its destruction. 
Other destructive agencies exist. It is not claimed 
that the fisherman Peter was a scientific man; but 
Suppose, for any reason, there should be _ intense 
heat developed on the surface of this planet; would 
not certain gases by chemical necessity be developed ? 
Would not the hydrogen of the atmasphere be suddenly 
liberated? Would it not enter into new relations with 
the oxygen, forming explosive combinations? And is 
there any known power, excepting the divine, which 
could prevent a sudden and fatal explosion, in which 
the world would be on fire, and the atmosphere pass 
away with a great noise? . 

The shape of the earth is by no means fixed. It 
yields to its own revolutions, and to all outside attrac- 
tions. It is slightly flattened at the poles, but is so 
pliable that the poles may be anywhere: they and the 
equator have once, at least, exchanged places. The 
climatic changes now in progress, and the departure 
of the north star from its old post in the sky, indicate 
that, if the earth stands long enough, they will do so 
again. The Cuban and the Australian will become 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 409 


fir-clad Icelanders. Spitzbergen will cultivate the 
orange, and its inhabitants will swelter under one 
hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. 

Some author has remarked that, from the earliest 
times, there has been in this world a loud and ever- 
repeated cry of “Fire!” It was begun by the Egyp- 
tians, continued by the Greeks; and in our own day it 
has waxed so loud and clear that no man of science 
can say it isa false alarm. The existence of fire within 
the earth may have been in part conjecture with the 
Egyptians; with us it is no longer conjecture, but 
certainty ; the pliable character of the earth’s surface 
proves it. Three hundred active volcanoes, and numer- 
ous extinct ones; the remarkable eruptions of Vesuvius 
from 63 to 79 A.D., which ‘ devastated the fair and 
fertile fields adorning its sides, scattering the numer- 
ous populations which had been engaged in all the 
various occupations of life;” and still more recent 
eruptions, — are evidences that this world has been, 
and still is, on fire throughout its inner courts and 
compartments. These and other facts prove the exist- 
ence of internal fires with as much certainty as we 
should know, upon entering a house, where, from every 
crack and seam, fitful flames and black smoke were 
issuing, that some hall or room within was wrapped 
in destructive flames. 

Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiz, are solemn and 
sombre witnesses of facts. Look at those cities for a 
moment. Herculaneum was buried underneath one 
hundred feet of mud and-ashes, sand and lava. There 
it slumbered unknown nearly seventeen hundred years. 
One hundred and fifty years ago its grave was entered 


410 CREDO. 


and its history read. The streets and shops were 
found just as the flying inhabitants left them. The 
ruts made by carriages on the streets bore the im- 
press of wheels, as perfectly as they do in our own 
day. The names of the owners were found over the 
doors of their houses. Fabrics in the shop windows, 
vessels of fruit on the shelves, and medicine on the 
apothecary’s counter, showed their texture and nature 
as accurately as if they had been left there the day 
before. There were found statues and vases bearing 
the impressions of the minutest lines, and loaves of 
bread with the impress of the baker’s name. Soldiers 


were found standing on guard, with Spear in hand; 


and in one of the halls of the city was found the 
skeleton of a woman with an infant skeleton in her 
arms. Her bones were encircled with the rings and 
ornamental chains of gold which she wore in life. 
What a thrilling history these discoveries suggest ! 

‘‘ After nearly seventeen centuries had rolled away,” 
says a modern writer, “ the city of Pompeii was disin- 
terred from its silent tombs, all vivid with undimmed 
hues; its walls fresh as if painted yesterday; not a 
tint faded on the rich mosaic of its floors ; in its forum, 
the half-finished columns, as left by the workman’s 
hands; before the trees in its gardens, the sacrificial 
tripod; in its halls, the chest of treasure; in its baths, 
the strigil; in its theatres, the counter of admission ; 
in its saloons, the furniture and lamps ; in its triclinia, 
the fragments of the last feast; in its cubicula, the 
perfumes and the rouge of faded beauty; and every- 
where, the skeletons of those who once moved the 
springs of that minute yet gorgeous machine of luxury 


eo 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 4It 


and life. The remarkable preservation, for nearly 
two thousand years, of these cities, with their houses, 
furniture, and even the most perishable substances, 
beneath beds of volcanic rocks, may be compared to 
those geological changes by which the forests of an 
earlier world, and the remains of the colossal dragon- 
forms which inhabited the ancient land and waters, 
have been perpetuated.” 

What is there to prevent a repetition of these scenes 
on a grander and far more extensive scale, in which 
will be involved, not the fate of single cities, but 
of the world itself —nay, of the planetary system of 
which we form a part? Are not the elements at com- 
mand? Is there any scientific improbability ? 

On the 5th of June, 1835, there was an eruption 
from the crater of Mauna Loa, which sent a mighty 
cataract of fire, —-in some places two hundred feet 
deep and from one to five miles broad, — with resist- 
less energy, a distance of forty miles to the sea. Here 
leaping a precipice of fifty feet, it plunged for twenty 
days and nights its liquid mass of fused rocks and 
minerals, with the depth and breadth of Niagara, in 
one emblazoned sheet, one raging torrent of gory red, 
into the ocean beneath. The atmosphere was filled 
in all directions with ashes, spray, and gases. The 
waters were heated for twenty miles along the coast. 
Night was converted into day for a distance of fifty 
miles at sea; and the light from it rose and spread 
itself like morning upon the distant mountain-tops. 

Pass from 1835 to 1868. We take the following 
account from a published letter of a missionary, re- 
specting an eruption of this mountain, which occurred 


412 CREDO. 


in the latter year. ‘‘ March 24, early in the morning, 
we discovered,” he says, ‘an immense column of 
smoke and gas, which in a few minutes attained 
the height of several miles, forming huge pillars, 
grand beyond description. A few minutes after one 
o’clock, on Saturday, the foundations of the everlast- 
ing hills seemed to give way. The whole island 
seemed like a great ship loosened from her moor- 
ings, reeling to and fro, rising and falling and shaking 
terrifically, as if she were going to pieces. The 
oldest inhabitants unite their testimony that it was 
the most fearful and terrific earthquake ever known 
on these islands.” 

Why delay with isolated instances. The same 
facts are published, in one form or another, through- 
out the world, from Alps round to Alps again, and 
from the gleaming volcanoes of Iceland to the burn- 
ing mountains of the Southern Polar Seas. Whole 
cities, with their elegant mansions and splendid 


churches, have been levelled to the ground in the 


Space of a few minutes. The rising of the land in 
Scandinavia, and the depression in Greenland, are 
existing and long-continued warnings that we. are 
on a crust, underneath which are chained and “ +e- 
served” the forces which, all science acknowledges, 
are sufficient to fulfil the conditions imposed by the 
prophecies respecting the end of the world. The 
conclusions of men of science, after the most careful 
investigations and explorations, are, that the interior 
of this earth is an ocean of fire, which begins at a 
depth variously estimated at from fifty to two hun- 
dred miles. Allowing that the diameter of the earth 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 413 


is eight thousand miles, should we pass through its 
centre, we should find on our journey at most only 
four hundred miles of earthy crust to seven thousand 
six hundred miles of liquid fire. What a precarious 
bridge is this upon which we are standing! What 
a hazardous journey is this we are making! We 
live in a house that has been fired, the flames of 
which are well under way. 

‘“¢ When we consider,” says Lyell, ‘‘ the combustible 
nature of the elements of the earth, the facility with 
which their compounds may be decomposed, and the 
quantity of heat which they evolve during the pro- 
cess; when we recollect the expansive power of 
steam, and that water itself is composed of two 
gases, which by their union produce intense heat; 
when we call to mind the number of explosive and 
deteriorating compounds which have been already 
discovered, — we may be allowed to share the astonish- 
ment of Pliny, that a single day should pass without 
a general conflagration.” 

Let but the order be issued to liberate those internal 
fires, to combine or separate certain chemical agents 
surrounding us, and the reserved forces would leap 
forth and swallow in their angry and fire-red jaws 
all traces of organic life and remains. The mighty 
pillars, and the vast mountain ranges of earth, from 
peak to base, would plunge into this ingulfing ocean 
of fire. The atmosphere, from a chemical necessity, 
would pass away with a great noise. The waters 
of the seas would be hurled from their beds. They 
would flash over the sky in trembling vapors and 
developed gases. They would flee away from the 


414 CREDO. 


presence of Him that sitteth upon the throne. There 
would be “ no more sea.” 

With these facts before us, with our feet upon the 
sciences, and, what is more than all else, with the 
sure word of prophecy in our hands, let the evangel- 
ical Christian world be charged no longer with lack 
of intelligence, when it asserts that the day of a gen- 
eral conflagration is on the wing, and that its morn- 
ing and evening are known to God. The sciences 
do not present a single page which teaches that such 
a conclusion is in any way impossible or improbable. 
Analogically they prove that when the present system 
has culminated, a season of desolation (longer or 
shorter) will be followed by advancement and im- 
provement. 

Lhe Psychologico-Scriptural Argument. — Many 
Christians sudmzt to certain descriptions of their fu- 
ture abode. They neither believe nor are they satis- 
fied with them. A few grand and expressive phrases 
take the place of substance and revelation. Madame 
De Gasparin has well spoken, — 

“Splendor! Immensity! Eternity! Grand words! 
Great things! A little definite happiness would be 
more to the purpose.” We now speak as a believer 
rather than a theorist. Revelation is the foundation 
on which we build. 

As we enter this field of discussion, we are met by 
those who remind us that when so little is revealed, 
we must not seek to pry open closed gates. Such a 
course is thought to be profanation, The author of 
the ‘* Physical Theory of. Another Life” has well re- 
plied, ‘In truth, if the human family is to live anew, 


_ 


~ 
a 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 415 


the future stage of its existence offers itself to our 
curiosity as a proper branch of the physiology of the 
species; and it only remains to be asked whether we 
are in possession of any sufficient materials for pros- 
ecuting the subject.” For our own part, the more we 
study the Scriptures, the more they flood the other 
world with sunbeams. We are in possession of a 
clear, consistent, and beautiful revelation. Inspired 
“seers” not only clearly disclose the fact that the 
supernatural heavens and earth are to exist in the 
future, but that they do, in part at least, already exist. 

A Syrian king sent troops to arrest the prophet 
Elisha. They surrounded the village where the 
prophet abode. He had but one servant for defence. 
«« Alas, my master,” inquired the servant, ‘“what can 
we do?” The prophet saw that instant what his 
servant could not see. Once before he had seen 
what fifty witnesses, watching over the river, could 
not see—the translation (rather the transfiguration) 
of Elijah. ‘* Fear not,” replied the prophet, ‘“ for they 
that be with us are more than they that be with them.” 
To the natural eye the dawn-light of that morning 
disclosed nothing except an immense Syrian army. 
‘© And Elisha prayed and said, ** Lord, I pray thee, 
open his eyes, that he may see.” A new sense or fac- 
ulty was conferred. The young man saw a new 
order of intelligences — also ‘ horses and chariots of 
fire.” They were there before, but were previously 
invisible. 

Ascend the Mount of Transfiguration. Certain 
forms then appeared which bodied forth the fulness 
of life. They were not transient visitors to earth. 


416 CREDO. 


Those glorified inhabitants of the other world assumed 
nothing extraordinary on that occasion. The change 
was in the observers. The natural physical senses of 
the disciples were locked up. Others were temporarily 
conferred or awakened. They saw —‘“‘ e¢don” (a word 
which implies the veritable sight of a veritable object) 
— what the natural eye could not see. Take another 
illustration. The same phenomenon occurred in the 
case of Stephen. While he was falling to the earth 
under the cruel blows of his murderers, this supernat- 
ural sense was conferred. The eternal gates seemed 
to open. It was really the opening of his eyes upon 
the immortal life. The same thing was true of Paul 
on the road to Damascus. He saw objects which fall 
not within the range of natural sensation. Christ did 
not then descend from some place beyond the stars ; 
he is ever present and omnipresent, but he seemed to 
break in upon the inner sight of the persecutor. He 
came from a sphere above the natural, but within the 
range of immortality, and within the visual range of 
eyesight, but beyond its power. These disclosures 
can be accounted for by the suspension of the natural 
perception, or by the exercise of one which can look 
upon countenances whose radiance is above the daz- 
zling brightness of the lightning stroke, and upon rai- 
ments which glisten above the whiteness of the snow 
under sunbeams. The angels which appeared amid 
the scenes of our Saviour’s resurrection, and those 
which visited the patriarchs on various occasions, as- 
sumed no new attribute themselves. Their faces were 
all the while present and radiant. The change was 
entirely with the beholder. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 417 


Perhaps the most remarkable instance of the gift 
of supernatural discernment recorded in the Scrip- 
tures occurred at the resurrection of our Saviour. 
His crucifixion was attended with violent earthquakes. 
The limestone caverns, in which graves had been ex- 
cavated, were wrenched asunder. The graves were 
opened. On the third day following, many saints ap- 
peared. Tradition informs us that the twelve patri- 
archs were among the number, ‘‘ and came out of the 
graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy 
city, and appeared unto many.” (Matt. xxvii. 53.) 
We think no violence is done to the laws of Scripture 
interpretation, when we say that the ‘‘ many” referred 
to looked in upon the immortal world. The dust and 
material corruption of those patriarchs did not return 
to the tombs, indeed they did not quit the tombs 
even temporarily. The change, as in case of Elisha, 
of Paul, and the Revelator in Patmos, was uncon- 
sciously in the beholders. They beheld the dead as 
risen and alive. 

It is the practice of the inspired writers to represent 
an appearance as the thing itself. These saints ap- 
_ peared to have just come from their graves. In reality, 
they had frequently walked the streets of Jerusalem, 
entered the temple, and visited the homes of the peo- 
ple. The transaction itself was nothing new. The 
people were now permitted, for the first time, to be- 
come * seers” in the prophetic sense. To the thou- 
sands who were in Jerusalem, these disclosures were 
attestations that Christ had risen, that he had pierced 
the domain of death, and awakened to immortal life 
the blessed saints who were precious in his sight. 


of! 


418 CREDO. 


But why delay to recount individual instances? The 
Scriptures are pervaded with evidence that we dwell 
among invisible but eternal verities — personalities and 
substances. 

The disclosures of the Scriptures are supported by 
science. ‘* The conjecture concerning an invisible, 
sentient, and rational economy, coexistent with the 
visible universe, and occupying corporeally the same 
field, comports well enough, as we shall presently see, 
with the intimations of Scripture regarding the spirit- 
ual world; and it consists also with every analogy of 
the physical system, as understood by modern science ; 
for it has been ascertained that ponderable elements 
pervade one the other; that the imponderable pervade 
all; that different kinds of emanations or vibrations 
are always passing and repassing, in the most intricate 
manner, through the same spaces, without in the least 
degree disturbing each other; and finally, that the 
most powerful agencies are perpetually in operation 
around us, of which we have not the faintest percep- 
tion, and which we detect only by deductions from 
circuitous experiments.” * 

The universe is one system, but there are different 
involved systems — “ bodies celestial” and ‘ bodies 
terrestrial.” Some are ponderable; others are not. 
The surgeon may amputate the physical limb; the 
invisible limb remains untouched. It is felt to remain 
in all its perfection.t There is a substance which 
chains the needle to the pole, but it is invisible. In- 
visible forces will always produce either visible or 
invisible substances. We inhabit miniature taberna- 


* J. Taylor. t Dr. Holcombe. 


a). ie oe 7 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 419 


cles, which are built under the eaves and shadow of 
everlasting palaces. Blind and deaf men may be ina 
world which is filled with beauty and music, without 
seeing the one or hearing the other. All mortals are 
blind and deaf; all are asleep. A word will remove 
our blindness, and rouse us to consciousness. 

Let God speak, and the Arepared mansions would 
be seen as in the atmosphere about us. The planets 
make their revolutions through a substantial abode 
which envelops them. When the world and stars are 
rolled up like a scroll, and pass away, the new earth 
and heavens remain in their place undisturbed. It is 
only a line which separates us from the objective 
scenery of another world. When our planetary and 
suburban existence ends, our immortal and metropoli- 
tan begins. It is but a step from things which are 
*¢ seen and temporal” to things which are ‘* not seen 
and eternal.” Death will be to us that step —a step 
into light. ‘* Whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
shall never die. Believest thou this?” 

Of the character of our future abode, and its occu- 
pations, we know only “in part.” Its material char- 
acter will differ from that of the present. It will lack, 
however, none of its esseztzal excellences. The new 
earth will not crumble, or be on fire. It will contain 
neither the remains nor images of death. It will be 
swept and garnished. It will be substantial and beau- 
tiful. ; 

Look upon our present earth, with its grace and 
grandeur. See the sky, adorned with the lamps of 
night; see the blue morning creeping over the hills; 
see the great dome lit up in midday. Is there to be 


420 CREDO. 


nothing that resembles this loveliness in the new earth f 
Then let the old one remain. 

Go into a deep primeval forest, where the giant arms 
of lofty trees hold their leafy tenting over us, where one 
can drink in melody from the sublime solitudes of the 
infinite. Go to the summit of a lofty mountain range, 
where the enchanting smiles and beauty of lesser hills, 
and lakes, and streams blend into a perfect picture, which 
bears the stamp of the presence and image of the great 
Creator. Is there to be nothing like this in the future 
abode? Are we to stand forever upon a dead level? 
Is there to be but one building, and that an immense 
temple? The thought is painful to us. Ah, but our 
natures are to be changed! That we are to be im- 
proved is doubtless true; but that human nature is to 
be changed into any other kind of nature, we deny. It 
is to be rounded out and completed, redeemed and puri- 
fied; that is all. 

‘* I do not believe in a gross heaven,” says Dr. Chal- 
mers, ‘‘ but I do believe in a reasonable one.” The 
fixed and immovable choirs, dressed in plain white, are 
not the most pleasing to us.* The glory of that abode 
will not continually dazzle with its ineflable brightness, 
but will be supremely enjoyable. The future heaven 
is not an abstract grandeur, but a pleasant place. It is 
not filled with shadows and ghosts, but is the abode 
of the most tangible substances, and the most visible 
and friendly personalities that exist. The God who 
rules it is not an overwhelming and sublime abstrac- 
tion, but a real and dear friend in the person of Christ 
our Saviour. 


* Gates Ajar. 


Wa >~ 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 421 


John saw therein a beautiful stream ; it flowed down 
from some hill-side. He saw trees of wonderful foliage, 
from which the people plucked their palm branches. 
He saw wonderful fruit. We need not particularize. 
The impression which revelation leaves is that the 
new heavens and earth are purely odjective. The 
forms and bodies in it glow and pulsate with the 
reality of life. A brilliant, happy life, in the smiling 
light of a Redeemer’s countenance, takes the place of 
cold formalities. Songs gladden the atmosphere. The 
Lord God Almighty, which is the Lamb, lights up its 
everlasting archways; every corridor of the temple, 
every vale and hill-side of the landscape, is mantled 
with his smiling presence. 

Revelation also assures us that our associations in 
the immortal world are to be eminently social. 

The sentiment expressed by our Saviour in his 
‘high priestly” prayer, involving the desire to please 
himself and friends by showing them the glory he had 
with the Father before the world was, discloses an 
element in our human character which will never be 
separated from it. ‘I go,” said Christ, ‘to prepare 
a place for you.” ‘‘In my Father’s house are many 
mansions ””— homes. The new earth is a place for 
homes. It would be any place but heaven without 
them. The breaking up of vast congregations will 
be the signal for returning to joyous homes. ‘“ Be 
with me where Iam” presents a picture of intimate 
and happy associations. ‘* Neither marry nor given 
in marriage, but as the angels in heaven ” — how is 
that? Yes, the carnal disappears, but the heart is 
none the less knit to the heart it loves. 


422 CREDO. 


The family circle, the restoration of missing links, 
the being together, the being where He is, the con- 
verse of friends, the old smile that ever played upon 
the face, the familiar voice, — these go to make up 
the heaven of revelation. It exists now. It will ex- 
ist in perfection when the earth is removed out of its 
place, when the resurrection body is received, and the 
final judgment is passed. 

But who is he that is able to doff the working gar- 
ments of the old world after it has been baptized in 
an ocean of fire? Who can deck the universe in all 
the splendor of everlasting robes? Who can furnish 
those rich and fascinating fields which shall fill the 
mind with ecstasy, as it flies onward and onward 
world without end? Who is able to provide the city 
which hath foundations, not of fire, but those which 
are eternal — that country and city of which the proph- 
ets spoke, and for which their hearts were ever sighing? 
Who can furnish those immortal and spiritualized 
bodies promised to the servants of God, in which they 
shall be able to behold scenes far more enchanting, 
and objects far more glorious, than can possibly come 
within the range of mortal vision, and possessed of a 
power which will enable them in a moment to soar 
away far beyond the ken of the telescope? ‘ The 
depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is 
not with me.” ‘ Destruction and death” say of it, as 
of wisdom, *‘ We have heard the fame thereof with our 
ears.” Has any being the power? Yes. Thou art 
able, thou Word and Christ of the world and of God. 
In thee and in thy word we trust. To the hem of 
thy garment we fondly cling. In thee is eternal life. 
United to thee, we fear nothing and expect all things. 


A SUPERNATURAL DESTINY FOR MAN. 423 


Without thee was not anything made that was made. 
Thou, who hast wrought the mighty changes of the 
past, canst work this final consummation also. 

Then shall be brought to pass the saying written, 
‘* And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Be- 
hold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will 
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and 
God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; 
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor 
crying; neither shall there be any more pain: for the 
former things are passed away. And he that sat upon 
the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And 
he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and 
faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I[ am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I 
will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of 
the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall 
inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall 
be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the 
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and 
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their 
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- 
stone ; which is the second death.” The good remain, 
the wicked are banished. 

All things are beseeching the race of mortals to 
kneel at the cross and live forever? 

‘Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, 
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy 
conversation and godliness? Wherefore, beloved, 
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that 
ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and 
blameless.” 


‘“¢ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not 
with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, 
said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto 
them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and 
put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again 
his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came 
Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, 
Peace be unto you. 

‘‘Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and 
behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it 
into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas 
answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus 
saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou 
hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
have believed.” ‘Sohn xx. 24-30. 


‘*T am the resurrection and the life. Whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” 
Fohn xi. 25, 26. 


‘The ground occupied by the sceptic is the vestibule of the 
temple. Knowledge is the knowing we cannot know.” 


EMERSON. 


‘The clear, cold question chills to frozen doubt; 
Tired of beliefs, we dread to live without; 
O, then, if Reason waver at thy side, 
Let humble Memory be thy gentle guide; 
Go to thy birthplace, and, if faith was there, 
Repeat thy father’s creed, thy mother’s prayer.” 
O. W. HotmEs. 


(424) 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 


RA cnoe a few days after our Saviour had risen 
from the dead, there might have been seen a 
company of eleven men, in earnest conversation, met 
within private rooms in the city of Jerusalem. Ten 
of the number were making an effort to convince the 
eleventh of the resurrection of their Master and Teach- 
er, who, a few days before, had been publicly executed. 
They based their argument upon the fact, that during 
the absence of this disciple they had seen and con- 
versed with their Master, having received from him 
also many and strong evidences of his identity. This 
disciple, whom all recognize as Thomas, listened at 
first patiently to the statement of the case; but as his 
brethren proceeded, so many and fresh difficulties 
suggested themselves, that he became impatient and 
thoroughly sceptical. That they had seen something, 
he did not doubt; but in his judgment that some- 
thing was zof Christ, but was, perchance, a ghost. 
He did not charge them with falsehood, but with 
illusion; not with an effort to deceive him, but with 
self-deception. We can easily imagine the scene dur- 
(425) 


4.26 CREDO. 


ing this discussion. On the one side there were the 
earnest tones and gestures of men who know what 
they have seen, and think it strange that others will 
not believe them; on the other side a man, tall in 
stature, the reflective faculties predominating, of calm 
and searching eye, of high and pale forehead, who 
stood unmoved by what, to him, seemed improbable 
testimony, or, rather, testimony as to things improb- 
able. His opponents reaffirmed, again and again, 
‘We have seen him! We have seen him!” He again 
and again objected to the evidence as unsatisfactory. 
They thought him unduly sceptical; he thought them 
unduly credulous. Like many others, these men, the 
same at heart, differed widely in judgment. At length, 
after many words, only an abstract of which is here 
given, Thomas closed the controversy by assuring 
them that he could not believe in his Master’s resur- 
rection until he had seen the “ print of the nails.” 
The language employed to express his position, and 
the subsequent events of his life, disclose the fact that 
there was an earnest sceptic among the disciples, and 
suggest to us the method of overcoming the scepticism 
which is not unfrequently found among sincere Chris- 
tian people. The term sceptic, however, is not here 
employed in its repulsive, but in its original sense. 
One with a covered or a shaded eye is the real scep- 
tic. He looks at a subject intently, and scans it 
closely before he is prepared to believe; he doubts, 
not because he chooses to, but because he cannot help 
it; to him the testimony ordinarily given is not sat- 
isfactory, aud the evidence produced is not attested 
by the senses or approved by the judgment. There 


—-- 


OO EE 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 427 


is much truth in the following statement of Emerson: 
‘‘ This, then, is the right ground of the sceptic, this 
of consideration, of self-containing; not at all of un- 
belief; not at all of universal denying, nor of universal 
doubting, — doubting even that he doubts; least of 
all, of scoffing and profligate jeering at all that is sta- 
ble and good. These are no more his moods than 
are those of religion and philosophy. He is the con- 
siderer, the prudent, taking in sail, counting stock, | 
husbanding his means, believing that a man has too 
many enemies than that he can afford to be his own; 
that we cannot give ourselves too many advantages 
in this unequal conflict, with powers'so vast and un- 
weariable ranged on one side, and this little conceited, 
vulnerable popinjay that a man is, bobbing up and 
down into every danger, on the other. It is a position 
taken up for better defence, as of more safety, and 
one that can be maintained; and it is one of more 
opportunity and range; as, when we build a house, 
the rule is, to set it not too high nor too low, under 
the wind, but out of the dirt.” Such a man is the 
one to whom the term scefézc originally applied ; and 
such, in this respect, precisely was the character of 
Thomas. He was constitutionally thoughtful and 
meditative. He required strong evidence in order to 
establish belief. He was a natural doubter. He was 
ever inclined to look upon the dark and uncertain side 
of every question, but had in his bosom a noble and 
an heroic heart. 

Of the early life and character of this disciple in- 
spiration is silent. The traditionary evidence, how- 
ever, goes to show that he was born in Antioch, nearly 


428 CREDO. 


contemporaneous with our Saviour’s birth. It would 
appear that he met Jesus somewhere in Palestine, dur- 
ing his early Judean ministry, and subsequently, upon 
the Master’s invitation, became his disciple. The 
New Testament notices respecting him, as respecting 
others, are not voluminous, but brief and definite. 
They nevertheless involved all that is necessary for us 
to form an accurate estimate of his character and men- 
tal peculiarities. God works in revelation as in na- 
ture. Comparative philology, from a single obsolete 
word, will disclose to us the structure of a dead lan- 
guage. Comparative anatomy, from a single fossil 
bone, will restore an extinct species. Thus a single 
word, and attendant expressions, with careful study, 
may tell us all that we need know of the man with 
whom we do our business, or whom we meet in the 
Streets. 

The first notice we have of the disciple Thomas 
was his speech when our Lord determined to face the 
dangers which awaited him in Judea, on his journey to 
Bethany. It was only a few months before the cruci- 
fixion, and shortly after our Saviour’s escape, by going 
beyond Jordan, from the Jews who were about to 
stone him. While teaching in that region, the sisters 
of Lazarus sent to Jesus that their brother was sick. 
After remaining two days, he said to his disciples, 
‘‘ Let us go into Judea again.” This proposition met 
with immediate and _ positive opposition. ‘* Master,” 
replied the disciples, ‘the Jews of late sought to 
stone thee, and goest thou thither again?” It was at 
this crisis, when the other disciples were hesitating 
and throwing every obstacle in the path of Christ, 


— 7 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 429 


that Thomas comes first into notice; and, ** Let us also 
go, that we may die with him,” was his earnest but 
desponding plea. Two traits of character are here 
apparent: first, the most entire devotion to his Mas- 
ter; and, second, his constitutional tendency to view 
things on the dark side. This expression indicates 
that he saw nothing but night and death before him. 
He entertained not the slightest hope of escape. He 
looked on the journey to Bethany as leading to total 
and irretrievable ruin; but he was none the less 
resolved to go, and share the peril of it with his 
Master. 

The second notice we have of Thomas was his 
speech during the Last Supper. Our Saviour had 
been endeavoring to comfort the troubled hearts of 
the disciples with the hope of heaven. He was just 
saying to them, ‘* Whither I go ye know, and the way 
ye know,” when he was suddenly interrupted by 
Thomas, who said, ** Lord, we know not whither 
thou goest; and how can we know the way?” This 
question brings before us another characteristic of the 
disciple — that of prosaic but honest doubt. Here 
were the tearful eye and trembling heart of one who 
goes to the altar for prayer, not knowing that it will 
avail anything, not knowing how it can avail any- 
thing; evincing often a hesitating incredulity as to 
moving a single step in the unseen way, but all the 
while expressing an eager inquiry, that breaks in upon 
what is passing, to know how that step is to be taken, 
if it can be taken at all. I will go; but Low, and 
where, and when? are the questions. . 

The third and last important notice we have of 


> 


430 CREDO. 


Thomas is the one already referred to. On this occa- 
sion the apostle gave expression, not to his charac- 
teristic devotion, as in the first instance, nor to his 
constitutional despondency, as in the second, but to 
the vehemence of his natural scepticism. While the 
other disciples were trying to argue him into a belief 
of Christ’s resurrection, the vivid image that his last 
view of Christ upon the cross had made upon his 
mind, the nails in his hands and the gash in his side, 
refuted all their arguments, and neutralized every 
assertion. The intensity of doubt seized upon him. 
With all the earnestness of his soul he exclaimed, 
‘© Except I see the print of the nails, and put my 
finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
into his side, I will not believe.” This is the earnest 
expression of an inability to believe. It is not the lan- 
guage of obduracy, but is rather that classical use of 
the simple future, which would be better translated, 
‘I cannot believe ;” meaning, I have not the moral 
ability to believe such an event upon your testimony. 
‘© T wish I could, but I cannot,” is the embodied senti- 
ment. It also partakes of the character of language 
used in animated discussion —a sudden retort. This 
is not the incredulity of one who asks for reasons only 
to combat and reject them, but that kind of intemper- 
ate exclamation which arises when one is attacked on 
all sides at once. It was ten against one, and led to 
the use of stronger language than was really meant — 
a demand for evidence, as the sequel shows, stronger 
than was really required. It was, on his lips, charac- 
teristic language. It gives us a true insight into the 
make of his mind and drift of his thoughts. 


———— Sa 


A SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 431 


The doubts of Thomas and those of which we 
speak arise not from an indisposition of the heart, but 
of the head. The affections are aglow ; the thoughts 
are befogged. 

There are two classes of devout minds in the world: 
first, those who feel out their religion, liable some- 
times, especially in their earlier experience, to excesses 
and deceptions; and, second, those who ¢hink out 
their religion, who are liable to live in the realm of 
doubt and cloud. Those of the first: class believe 
easily ; they are admitted at once into the light; they 
see no night; there are no barriers to their initiation 
and progression; there is heaven within heaven, sky 
above sky, star beyond star; the whole upper dome 
is ever seen glistening and trembling with truth and 
beauty. The second class are often enveloped in 
clouds black as ink. The sky nowhere gleams with 
the smile of a golden sunset, or the triumph of a rosy 
morning. ‘ The gates” are neither ** wide open,” nor 
‘‘ajar.” Those of the first class never examine evi- 
dence, take no interest in carefully balancing testi- 
mony. They are neither lawyers nor philosophers : 
they do not necessarily receive what they hear, but 
what they feed to be true. Religious truth enters the 
hearts of such persons, not through the head, but 
direct, as by intuition. It cannot be said that they 
believe thus and so because others do, nor that others 
think for them. They care less about thinking, and 
more about conviction. They know truth by feeling 
it. They are so in sympathy with Christ, and so 
mentally constituted, that they need no external, but 
are satisfied with internal evidence. The resurrection 


43,2 CREDO. 


of Christ to them is a fact. Arguments against will 
not shake, arguments for will not strengthen, their 
confidence. Their own resurrection is as real as if 
the clay were already falling off, and the new material 
forming upon the body. Such a faith affords a confi- 
dence which all the arguments and objections in the 
world cannot shake. One who can thus believe is 
‘* blessed” as no other on earth. 

Such a state of mind is the repose of John upon the 
bosom of Christ, the confidence of a child in the arms 
of its mother; while the opposite characteristic is the 
struggle of Thomas before the disciples. 

‘‘ Blessed,” said our Saviour, —and this was pre- 
cisely the principle he meant; not the imputation of 
blame to Thomas, but the simple statement of a fact, — 
‘Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have 
believed ;”’ that is, blessed are those who feel their 
religion, and know it because they feel it. It was so 
in the days of Christ; it is none the less so now. It 
will be a sad day for our Christianity, and more sad 
for many in the church, if the head, in this respect, 
were required or allowed to take the place of the 
heart, or if sight undertake to do the work of faith. 
The head cannot safely say to the heart, more than 
the heart can to the head, ‘I have no need of thee.” 
But these who feel out their religion cannot be said, 
on that account, to be better men, or more devout: 
they are more cheerful Christians; that is all. On 
the other hand, those who think out their religion can- 
not be said, on that account, to be less faithful or evan- 
gelical. Asa rule, they can be depended upon in times 
of peril. They instantly fly to the rescue of the church 


A SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 433 


whenever it is assailed. They are the sounder theo- 
logians. They are the deeply earnest souls of the 
world, who love the truth none the less because it is 
not seen, but who navigate the ship through tempest, 
storm, and night, to the haven, believing there is some 
place where anchor can be cast and sails furled. They 
love solitude. They shun the world to find in their own 
mysterious thoughts their companions and their hopes. 

It is this characteristic which best explains the 
absence of Thomas during the first visit of his Master. 
We do not say but it would have been better for him 
to have been with the disciples; we cannot tell; we 
only know that Christ did not condemn him. Thomas 
was so like that earnest, thinking John Foster that we 
pause for a moment to note the comparison. Foster 
was often alone, often absent from society, but never 
idle, never thoughtless. He used to walk the aisles 
of his church at Chichester, often by moonlight and 
by starlight, until, at length, he wore his path in the 
solid pavements. He wrestled by the hour in prayer, 
struggling with eternity and immortality, and fashion- 
ing those mighty thoughts, ‘* which,” says Robert Hall, 
“‘are like a great lumber-wagon loaded with gold.” 
They were given to the world, and ever since have 
fired the hearts of young men to meet duty and fear 
God. He used to kneel in charnel-houses, and pray 
the dead to break the silence, and speak to him of the 
Invisible. He used to cry aloud to the midnight hills 
for some wandering spirit to render up its secrets, and 
tell him what to do. ‘“ We know not whither thou 
goest, and how can we know the way?” was the bur- 
den of his prayer. 

28 


434. CREDO. 


Such men, we repeat, cannot be so truly happy as 
others. Foster, Cowper, Thomas, were not happy 
men; they could not be; but they were thinkers 
and servants of God. 

Consider the conduct and language of Thomas, as 
he stood before the disciples on the occasion in ques- 
tion. He was then and there the embodiment of a 
pure rationalism. ‘They stated to him a fact which, 
more than anything else in the world, he wished were 
true. No one of his ten brethren desired any more 
intensely that the fact might be true; but to him it 
was dark — all dark. One hundred and fifty genera- 
tions had passed away. He could think of no one 
who had returned from the invisible world to walk 
among men. Whole armies had daily set sail upon 
that ocean which has no shore, but no friendly sail 
had returned until now. The statement of his breth- 
ren staggered him. The bloody gash in the side of 
his Master haunted him. He listened; he heard what 
was said; he struggled; his heart throbbed to receive 
it. O that it were true! But his head was among 
the clouds; the empty tomb and living Christ were 
hid from view. Whatever may have been his per- 
sonal choice, he had not the moral power to believe 
upon the evidence given. A simple assertion was not 
sufficient, though repeated a thousand times. The 
prophecies and the statements of Christ had been 
overlooked or forgotten by him and his companions 
amid the terrible scenes of the crucifixion, and ‘* we 
have seen him” was the only argument employed. 
For Thomas to have believed upon that testimony 
solely would have been to make believe. That he 


ee 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 435 


could not do. His mind was of an order too high and 
too pure to deceive itself. In consequence, the splen- 
did truth of Christ’s resurrection fell at his feet unem- 
braced and unbelieved. The company of the disciples 
separated, and Thomas returned to his abode sad and 
disconsolate. 

All remember the disciple whose heart was bruised 
the most sorely at the trial of Christ, and the message 
that came within a few days, “ Go, tell the disciples 
and Peter that he is arisen and goeth before them to 
Galilee” !_ So is it always. Christ never forgets his 
distressed but honest followers. 

It was a delightful Sabbath morning in the month 
of March, the first after. the one which had witnessed 
the resurrection of the Son of God, that the Jewish 
people might have been seen slowly approaching the 
temple, or turning their faces towards Jerusalem, for 
worship. The disciples had again met, and Thomas 
with them. Ten of his companions, and certain wo- 
men, gave in their testimony anew, but he yielded not. 
He dreaded delusion. A few moments later, without 
a window opened or a bolt drawn, silent as a spirit, 
but real as life, the Master was again before them. 
We can almost hear the workings of the thoughts of 
that meditative disciple, asa score of conflicting emo- 
tions thrill his soul. His lips are silent, his eyes tear- 
ful, and his heart is throbbing to be pressed to the 
Master. 

‘“ Thomas!” How the well-known voice thrills 
him! ‘ Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold 
my hands; reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into 
my side; and be not faithless, but believing.” ‘ My 


436 CREDO. 


Lord and my God!” How much is involved in that 
reply! What a testimony to the world!. It is the cau- 
tious verdict of an enlightened, suspicious, most honest, 
and most earnest sceptic. He was eye-witness to the 
resurrection of Christ. Can the world ask more? We 
said that this truth of the resurrection fell at the sceptical 
disciple’s feet ; but it fell to be lifted again by One who 
is able to dissipate all doubts from every faithful heart, 
and so to strengthen this doubting disciple, that he 
may be able, by his peculiarity of mind, to make an 
advance far beyond and far above any of his fellow- 
disciples. He was enabled to comprehend, as the ne- 
cessary outgrowth of the resurrection, the identity of 
God and Christ. His mind alone seized upon the 
fact that, if Christ could rise from the dead, he could 
do anything else, and was divine. This was a new 
step in the theological world. Thomas stands be- 
fore us as the soundest and most advanced theolo- 
gian of the twelve — ‘the rationalist among the dis- 
ciples.” * He was in spiritual darkness until a rational 
and intellectual light dawned upon him. He thought 
out his religious belief. In his heart his convictions 
found their moorings. Christ afterwards confirmed 
them as the reward of love and faithfulness. 

We may here pause for a moment to consider cer- 
tain inquiries, which, doubtless, at one time or another, 
have entered the mind of every Christian. Why can- 
not some persons believe as easily as others? Why 
cannot this man enjoy his religion as that man does 
his? Why are not the evidences of Christianity 


* Oldshausen. 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 437 


equally clear to all minds? Is it because the one is 
better than the other, or not? 

It has been well remarked,* that some of the highest 
and purest Christian lives on earth have been unproduc- 
tive of Christian enjoyment and assurance. It becomes 
us, therefore, to pity the blind, not to be angry with 
them. - We speak in behalf of those who doubt their 
religion because they lack religious enjoyment. There 
are Christians who make no professions, simply be- 
cause they have none to make. They express no 
assurances, because they have none. They do not 
preach to the world joy and hope, because they have 
no joy or hope. They would be hypocrites if they 
made such professions. Their inner Christian life 
they conceal, because it is as the valley and shadow 
of death. They are sometimes reproached by well- 
meaning but inconsiderate Christian people, but bear 
the reproach with the composure of Christ. They 
are so pitiful when they mention God’s dealings with 
them that we weep. Their despair is so frightful and 
hideous that we shrink from them. But are these the 
worst people in society? Nay, they are sometimes 
the best, and serve God under circumstances in which 
others would rebel against him. In the end they often 
believe religious truths far more firmly and consistent- 
ly than those who had previously condemned them. 
The mistake of Job’s friends is the mistake of the 
world. They thought his sufferings indicated the de- 
pravity of his heart. ‘* Who ever perished being inno- 
cent?” pointed the arguments they employed, and the 


* Phelps. 


438 CREDO. 


charges they hurled against him. The despondency 
of William Cowper led those who knew him to speak 
of him as ‘Poor Cowper!” The gloom of John 
Foster startles us. Why? Because these men were 
the worst characters in the world? Nay, far other- 
wise. Job, the perfect man, met with complicated 
and repeated reverses, not because he had done any- 
thing to merit such treatment, but that he might de- 
monstrate to the world and the universe that a mortal 
is able to conquer the devil on his own grounds and 
with his own weapons. Cowper was left to weep in 
darkness for eleven years, in which, he tells us, not a 
solitary moment of hope of his own salvation ever 
cheered his soul; not that he deserved such treatment 
more than other men, but that in all coming time the 
fragrance of his hymns might cheer the hearts of 
others, and that his plaintive wailings —** God moves 
in a mysterious way,” and ‘ There is a fountain filled 
with blood” — might be heard in a thousand sanctua- 
ries of Zion on every returning Sabbath, inspiring 
suffering hearts with the very hope and confidence 
which were denied him. 

Christ made his first visit during the absence of the 
sceptical disciple, leaving him to contend with his 
own doubts and with his fellow-disciples, not by 
chance or accident, not because he was less worthy 
of the visit, but that the world might have from him 
the most overwhelming testimony to the identity of 
the Christ risen with the Christ dead. And thus the 
downcast, afflicted, sorrowing, despairing Christians 
throughout the world to-day may be depressed, not 
because they have sinned above others who are 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 439 


thrilled with joy, not because they are sinners at all, 
but in order to glorify God in the shock and struggle 
of a warfare in which ‘‘ man contends with dreadful 


though unseen belligerents,”’ 


and unconsciously fulfils 
a prophecy in which he demonstrates the fact that 
the seed of the woman of Eden still has power to 
bruise the bruised head of Satan. Or it may be they 
are thus left to be lights and beacons to others who 
are less able, alone and unguided, to navigate the 
rough and stormy sea of life and of Christian expe- 
rience. If any of our readers are thus depressed, if 
God has seemed to withdraw his face and favor, ‘* be 
not faithless, but believing.” Beat up and down 
through the regions of night a while longer; light 
shall come —if not at eventide, certainly in the 
morning. 

The Method by which the Scepticism or Doubts of 
Christians may be overcome. — There is a celebrated 
statue of Thomas, by Thorwaldsen, in the church at 
Copenhagen. He stands as a thoughtful, meditative 
sceptic. He holds a rule in his hand for the due 
measurement of evidence and argument. In every 
feature, the glance of the eye, the attitude of the body, 
the cast of the head, is seen that restless search for 
truth which clearly marks the ‘‘zzguzrer.” Who has 
not felt that there is a world of force and grandeur 
wrapped up in that single word? or what witness has 
not been touched by the sublimity that rests upon and 
above the altar in the Christian church erected for the 
inguiring spirit? The world is filled with barred 
doors and bolted windows. Who should not be an 
inquirer? We cannot doubt that the representation 


440 CREDO. 


* 


at Copenhagen is correct. Thomas was an earnest 
man in every thought and expression. He found him- 
self in a world of mystery; eternity rushing on to 
view, and the cry of his troubled soul was heard for 
“the way” and“ the truth.” 

There are two kinds of scepticism in the world — 
that earnest, inquiring scepticism which is faithful, 
and that which cares little or nothing for the truth, 
and which rejects it when presented. The one says, 
‘‘ Lord, we know not the way,” and awaits the an- 
swer. It fastens the troubled eye upon the Teacher. 
The soul is aroused as for life and eternity. The other 
asks the question, folds the arms, and falls asleep. 
The one asks, ‘* What is truth?” and waits until 
early dawn, if need be, for the answer. The other 
asks, like Pilate, and turns away before the reply is 
given. ‘The one is earnest, the other frivolous. The 
one seeks only for checks and balances against exag- 
geration, the other for obstacles and objections as ex- 
cuses. The one is innocent, the other guilty. The 
one course is dangerous, because it becomes chronic. 
Says Mackintosh, ‘‘ Those who are accustomed to 
dispute first principles are never likely to acquire 
love for the truth.” That is fatal to the life and ac- 
tivity of the soul. The other is harmless, because a 
night will have a morning, and the darker and longer 
the night, the brighter and more cheerful the morning. 
To the one the seal is fixed upon the book ; the other 
shall be worthy to loose it, because it is willing to 
grapple with difficulties if they come, and still be 
earnest and devout. If the doubting man is only an 
earnest and faithful man, there is no trouble or dan- 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 441 


ger. Every class of mind, even the sceptical, if de- 
vout, has its peculiar advantage to itself and to the 
world. God receives all, and needs all. Let a man 
be serious, let him grapple in real earnest with the 
great problems of life and death, though borne down 
before the awful shroud that hides an endless future, 
let him look intently before and above him for the 
way and the truth, though often compelled to put his 
fingers on his lips and weep in silence; let him be 
devout, and pray, and weep, and struggle; soon the 
painful silence to his questions of the Infinite shall be 
broken. God, in due time, will cleave the solid heav- 
ens, if need be, throw open the broad gates of the 
temple, bid him enter, reach forth his finger, and 
touch the living Christ of the universe, and live for- 
ever. This experience occurs daily. Such, precisely, 
were the character and the reward of the apostle 
Thomas. It is only the cold doubt of the Sadducee 
which demands a sign, being unworthy of it, upon 
whose soul the answer shall fall back like ice, ‘* There 
shall no sign be given,” except one full of perplexity, 
like that of Jonas. If men will continue faithless in 
life or heart; if they doubt and scoff, or, with David 
Hume, assume a boyish frivolousness, ask for cards, 
and bequeath Port and Sherry, when dying; if they 
will be satisfied only with gross weight in everything, 
and the pound of flesh; if they care only ‘to go, and 
mix, and leave, and get, and have;” if they decide 
to decide nothing; if they will have nothing to do 
with faith, because it enjoins duty; if they will live 
in doubt of religion, and act as though it were not 
true; if they remain contented, without knowing 


442 CREDO. 


whether the ship in which they sail is sound or 
rotten, whether the chart and compass they hold in 
their hands are reliable or worthless, whether the 
hoarse murmur they hear is the howling of the 
wind or the surf of the breakers on the fatal rocks; 
if they choose spiritual paralysis, rather than spiritual 
life, —then they can never, zever hear the voice of the 
Infinite. How different the conduct of the apostle 
whose character we have been considering! What- 
ever he believed to be his duty, that he fearlessly per- 
formed. Though often under the cloud, he never, 
intentionally, deserted his post. Had Christ command- 
ed him to be present on his first visit to the disciples, 
he would have obeyed, had it cost him his life. It 
was this devotion and faithfulness to Christ and duty 
which at length triumphed over his Scepticism, and 
made him the most convincing witness of a risen 
Redeemer. 

Consider the closing scene of this apostle’s life. 
While on a missionary tour at Maliper, not far from 
the present city of Madras, he suffered martyrdom. 
His reasoning had been so cogent, and his statements 
so clear, as to the life, death, and resurrection of 
Christ, that he had gained many converts, and con- 
founded the subtle Brahmins, who were not able to 
answer him. At length they ordered him to remain 
silent, or leave their city. But the preaching of Christ 
was dearer to him than life. He refused to comply 
with the demand, and, in consequence, was shortly 
after murdered, as he was kneeling at his devotions. 
His whole missionary work,—which extended from 
Jerusalem to Indostan and the coasts of Ceylon, — his 


i i — 


THE SCEPTIC AMONG THE DISCIPLES. 443 


life and death, attest the same devotion and faithful- 
ness. And yet this disciple, who was ready to risk 
his life in order to accompany Christ to Judea, at a 
time when the journey was beset by every peril, and 
who, by his position and language, inspired the same 
heroism in his fellow-disciples, and who, at last, died 
for his devotion, — this man has been held up to the 
world as an example of unfaithfulness. The charge 
is false and groundless. How frequently Christians 
misjudge one another! Thomas is the last man upon 
whom we can base the accusation. Many who are 
regarded as last may be honored as first. With all 
his doubts, in the strictest theological sense Thomas 
was a man of faith. ‘* PrsT1s,” which is the word 
Paul uses for fazth, in some of the voices of the verb 
means to odey. Obedience, then, is victorious faith 
—the faith in which God takes delight. When the 
soul stands before his judgment, the question will not 
be one of doubts and fears, but of facth-ful-ness. 

Is any Christian in doubt, or sometimes troubled, as 
to the divinity of Christ, his resurrection and ascen- 
sion — troubled sometimes with doubts as to the truth 
of revelation, the reality of heaven, the existence of 
hell, the resurrection of the body, and the immortality 
of the soul? Is the “supernatural book” at times a 
sealed book? do “supernatural beings” sometimes ap- 
pear to be only imaginary beings? does the ‘*super- 
natural life” occasionally present itself as a visionary 
life? and does the “supernatural destiny” ofttimes 
conceal itself under a myth? There is something 
worse than these temporary doubts. It is not a faith- 
less head, but a faithless life and a faithless heart that 


444. CREDO. 


are most to be feared. How are men living? is the 
question, — as if their doubts were true, or false — 
which? Are they struggling to know the truth and 
do right? If so, 


“‘ Give to the winds thy fears; 
Hope, and be undismayed.” 


A faithful man’s doubts are transitory, not permanent; 
disciplinary, not penal ; temporal, not eternal. 

If the facts of life, death, and a conscious immortal- 
ity, press heavily upon us; if we are overwhelmed as 
child or friend slips our hand, and drops into the great 
unseen and unknown, we must not despair. We should 
not be frivolous, but must struggle and pray, and keep 
knocking at the door of the temple, and shouting to 
the keeper. Our cry should be heard echoing along 
the walls of the city, “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates! 
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors!” The “Lo, 
I come,” will at length be heard from the City of God. 


‘* God liveth ever! 
Wherefore, soul, despair thou never! 
What though thou tread, with bleeding feet, 
A thorny path of grief and gloom? — 
Thy God will choose the way most meet 
To lead thee heavenward — lead thee home. 
For this life’s long night of sadness 
He will give thee peace and gladness; 
Soul, forget not, in thy pains, 
God o’er all forever reigns.” 


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